Foreign employment income is income you earned working overseas as an employee, such as salary, wages, commissions, bonuses or allowances.
If you are an Australian Government agency employee (and not a member of a disciplined force), you now pay tax on income earned from delivering Australian official development assistance (ODA). Include your income here.
Members of a disciplined force delivering ODA are still eligible for exemption. For more information, see Exempt foreign employment income.
Include income shown on a PAYG payment summary - foreign employment from any of the following:
If your payment summary also shows any of the following, include those details here:
- reportable fringe benefits amount (for more information, see Total reportable fringe benefit amounts)
- reportable employer superannuation contributions (for more information see Reportable employer superannuation contributions)
- workplace giving (for more information, see Gifts or donations)
- union or professional association fees (for more information, see Other work-related expenses).
Do not show at this section
If you:
- received payments on termination of your employment in a foreign country, show these at Employment termination payments in the Payment summaries section.
- received employee share scheme interests at a discount and that relate to your foreign employment, show these at Employee share schemes in the Other income section. The amount of any foreign income tax offset may include amounts of foreign tax paid in respect of employee share scheme discounts.
- received a PAYG payment summary - individual non business, show these amounts at Salary, wages, allowances, tips, bonuses etc in the Payment summaries section.
If you can't see these sections, use the Personalise return screen to select those sections that apply to you. For further help with personalising your return, see How to personalise your return.
Completing this section
You will need your PAYG payment summary – foreign employment or a comparable statement such as a letter or signed statement from each employer or payer.
If you do not have all your payment summaries or comparable statements, contact your employer or payer for a copy or comparable statement. If you are unsuccessful in obtaining any of these, see Lost or missing PAYG withholding payment summary.
If you received income for work or services performed in the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), you may need to read Joint Petroleum Development Area instructions to work out how to deal with your JPDA income at this section.
We have pre-filled your tax return with payment summary information provided to us. Check for foreign employment income on a payment summary you received that is not pre-filled and ensure you add it.
- Enter the Occupation where you earned most income.
If you cannot find your specific occupation, choose the most appropriate one that applies to you. - For each payment summary that has not been pre-filled in your tax return, select Add and enter information into the corresponding fields.
If you do not know the Payer's Australian business number (ABN) leave this field blank - For each payment summary that has a Foreign employment income type of Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), select your Residency status.
If you select D - Changed residence during the year, enter the required additional information (Date from, Date to and the Country you were a resident of). For each different residency period during the year select Add and provide additional details. - For each payment summary that has a Lump sum A greater than '0', select the Lump sum A type.
- For each payment summary that has a Lump sum E greater than '0', enter the required additional information (year and amount earned) and select Save. If the payment relates to more than one year, select Add and provide the additional details.
- For each payment summary that has a Foreign employment income type of:
- Foreign employment, or
- Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) and you indicate that you were an Australian resident for the whole or part of 2017–18
enter the Net foreign employment income.
Your net foreign employment income is the total of your Gross payments and Lump sum A and Lump sum E less your deductible work related expenses you incurred in earning your foreign income.
If your Foreign employment income type is Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), see Joint Petroleum Development Area instructions for more information.
- For each payment summary that has a Foreign employment income type of Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) where you indicate that you were not a resident of Australia or Timor-Leste at any stage of 2017–18, enter the Other non-refundable tax offset.
For more information on how to work out your Other non-refundable tax offset, see Joint Petroleum Development Area instructions. - Select Save.
- Select Save and continue.