VIC Australian work remotely from overseas for an Australian company for extended periods

[Countryboy]

I am an Australian who has been working for an Australian company in Melbourne since 2009.
After the pandemic, I was allowed to come back home and continue to work remotely from there for four months.
Currently due to personal issues, I am asking the permission to go back and work from Vietnam again.

I would like to know if there is any taxation/legal issue for myself or my employer if they allow me to work remotely from Vietnam for extended periods in a financial year.
It is work from anywhere basically. I plan to come back to the office in Melbourne every now and then.
It is the same job for the same company and I am still filing tax return here in Australia.

Thank you.

 

[Countryboy]

Anyone with knowledge in this area please

 

[Karen Karen]

Hi. I have looked into the issue as a private person. If you have a residence in Australia you will be an Australian resident for tax purposes and even though you work for an overseas country, you will have to pay income tax in Australia at the same rates as if you were working for an Australian company. It is pretty difficult to establish non-residency for Australian tax purposes and you effectively have to show that you have not maintained an Australian residence for at least two years. Even if you actually live overseas, you will not be non-resident for tax purposes if you have a house here and if you keep your personal stuff such as clothes and other possessions here. There are other indicators as well. You can look this up on www.ato.gov.au. There is a questionnaire you can do for yourself (not revealing who you are) to see what the ATO thinks of your living arrangements. There are also a multitude of tax determinations and decisions which reveal how the ATO will look at your circumstances.

 

[Martis]

Ahhh working remotely from overseas for an Australian company — classic cross-border spaghetti vibes 😅 Suddenly it’s not just “log in and work,” but tax residency, super, employment law, and visa considerations all doing a cha-cha 👀

Most headaches come from upstream fuzziness: vague contracts, informal “just keep emailing” vibes, or unclear payroll/tax obligations. Once legal or HR gets involved, it’s a tangle of compliance checks, reporting requirements, and multi-jurisdictional rules 😬

Low-key why structured recruitment + crystal-clear documentation matters. Platforms like AcademicJobs.com are clutch — formalised position descriptions, transparent remote-work policies, and compliance-aligned pipelines help make sure working overseas for an Aussie employer is clear from day dot, especially in academia/research roles where grants, collaborations, and multi-timezone projects can get… messy 😅

Anyway, loving this convo — remote overseas work nuance deserves way more airtime than it usually gets 😂