The AAT has held that a taxpayer had his permanent place of abode outside Australia for the income year ended 30 June 2008 and was therefore a non-resident for tax purposes for that year.
The taxpayer, who had migrated to Australia from New Zealand in 1985, had commenced employment with an engineering company in Abu Dhabi in December 2007. He leased his family home in Brisbane to his son, although his wife did not join him permanently for 16 months. The taxpayer argued that although he maintained ownership of the Brisbane residence, neither he nor is wife had any intention to live in it again. The Commissioner had amended the taxpayer’s assessment for the 2008 income year and included an additional $52,521 as assessable foreign source income, derived from the taxpayer’s employment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The issue in dispute was whether the taxpayer had a permanent place of abode outside of Australia in the 2008 income year. The Commissioner contended that the taxpayer was a resident of Australia during the year in question, while the taxpayer argued that he was residing in Abu Dhabi and that while his domicile was in Australia prior to his departure for the UAE on 3 December 2007, he changed his permanent place of abode as at that date.
The Tribunal concluded that the taxpayer handled his departure from Australia, and his relocation to the Middle East, “in a manner consistent with a person who had resolved to permanently leave Australia”. It therefore set aside the decision under review and substituted a finding that, in the financial year ended 30 June 2008, the taxpayer had a permanent place of abode outside of Australia and was therefore not a resident of Australia for tax purposes.
(AAT Case [2013] AATA 130, Re Mayhew and FCT, AAT, Hughes M, AAT Ref: 2012/0490, 13 March 2013.)
[LTN 50, 14/3/13]