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.
Essentials
Include income shown on an income statement/PAYG payment summary - foreign employment from any of the following:
If your income statement/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 foreign employment income that is not shown on an income statement/payment summary, show these at Foreign employment in the Foreign income section.
- received payments on termination of your employment in a foreign country, show these at Employment termination payments in the Income statements and 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 Income statements and 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 income statement, PAYG payment summary – foreign employment or a comparable statement such as a letter or signed statement from each employer or payer.
- An income statement provides your end of year income and tax information if your employer advises that you will not be issued with a payment summary. Income statements:
- can be accessed through your ATO Online account in myGov
- should be pre-filled in myTax.
Don’t use any income statements that are not 'Tax Ready'. For more information, see Income statements.
- A payment summary may continue to be provided by some employers. If so, and you don't 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 pre-fill your tax return with foreign employment income information provided to us. Check income statements/payment summaries you received for foreign employment income 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 income statement/payment summary you received for foreign employment income 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 income statement/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 income statement/payment summary that has a Lump sum A greater than '0', select the Lump sum A type.
- For each income statement/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 income statement/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 2018–19
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 income statement/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 2018–19, 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.