Leaving Australia at the end of a temporary visa: the superannuation payment and its tax, the final tax return, the debts and the record, and leaving on time

MARN 1576536

The superannuation payment: who can claim

Employers pay superannuation for temporary visa holders as for everyone, and a temporary visa holder who leaves Australia permanently can withdraw it as a departing Australia superannuation payment, under the superannuation law's provisions for temporary residents, where the person held a temporary visa other than the investor retirement visas, the visa has ceased to be in effect, by expiry or cancellation, and the person has left Australia. Australian citizens, permanent residents, and New Zealand citizens are not eligible, because their superannuation is preserved to retirement; a temporary visa holder who later becomes a permanent resident loses the right to claim and keeps the superannuation in the fund. A person who worked on several visas claims the whole balance, and a person with several funds claims from each or consolidates first.

The visa that must have ended

The fund cannot pay while the visa is in effect, and the Tax Office's system checks the Department's record: a person who leaves with months left on a 482 or a 485 and lodges the claim is told the visa is current, and either waits for the expiry or asks the Department to cancel the visa, which the Department does on the written request of a holder who is outside Australia and no longer wants it, through the form for requesting cancellation, within weeks. A person with a pending application, a partner visa or a further temporary visa, has a bridging visa or an application that keeps a visa in prospect, and withdraws the application before the visa can be treated as ended; the refund guide covers what is refundable. The cancellation on request has no exclusion period and no consequence beyond ending the visa, and it is disclosed on later forms as a cancellation at the holder's request, which the Department reads as what it is.

How the claim is made

1. Find every fund: the employer's default fund and any chosen fund, through the Tax Office's online services while the Australian identity details are current, or from the payslips.
2. After leaving, and after the visa has ended, lodge the claim through the Tax Office's departing Australia superannuation payment system online, with the passport details, the visa details, the tax file number and each fund's details; the system confirms the visa status with the Department.
3. The fund pays the balance, less the tax withheld, to the nominated account, by international transfer or cheque, within the period the law allows after receiving the complete claim.
4. A balance over a threshold, or a claim for a defined benefit, needs a paper claim with certified documents, which the fund specifies.
5. A claim can be lodged before leaving to be processed after, with some funds, but is paid only after departure and the visa's end.

The tax

The payment is taxed by withholding at a flat rate on the taxed element, and the rates at the time of writing have been thirty-five per cent for the taxed element of a payment to a temporary visa holder generally, forty-five per cent for an untaxed element, and sixty-five per cent on the whole of a payment that includes contributions made while the person held a working holiday visa, the 417 or 462, or a bridging visa associated with one, with the tax-free component paid without tax; the fund applies the Tax Office's current rates on the day of payment. The payment is not assessable income in the person's Australian return and is not declared there, and whether the home country taxes the receipt depends on its law and any tax treaty. A working holiday maker who later held a different visa has a single payment taxed at the higher rate where any of it is working holiday contributions, which the Tax Office's rules provide and which cannot be separated by the fund. The working holiday guide covers the backpacker's position.

The six months and unclaimed super

Where a departed temporary resident has not claimed within six months of the later of their departure and their visa's end, the fund is required to pay the balance to the Tax Office as unclaimed superannuation of a former temporary resident, after which it is held by the Tax Office without earnings and can be claimed at any later time through the same online system, with the same tax; the money is not lost, and a person who left a decade ago can claim it now. A fund that has paid the balance to the Tax Office tells the member where it can be found, and the Tax Office's online search finds lost and unclaimed superannuation by tax file number.

The final tax return

A person leaving Australia permanently lodges a final income tax return for the year of departure, which can be lodged early, before the end of the financial year, once Australian income has stopped, using the Tax Office's paper early-lodgement process or the online service after the year ends; the return records the date the person ceased to be an Australian resident for tax purposes, from which the person is taxed as a non-resident on Australian-source income only, and the tax-free threshold is reduced in proportion to the months of residency in the year. Working holiday makers are taxed under their own flat rates and lodge in the same way. The return triggers the refund or the bill for the year, and a person who leaves without lodging has an outstanding return that the Tax Office pursues, with penalties, and that can surface in a later visa application where the Department asks about debts to the Commonwealth. Study loans under the higher education schemes continue to be repayable from abroad on worldwide income, with an annual declaration to the Tax Office, for a person who incurred one.

Health cover and Medicare

Overseas visitor or student health cover paid in advance is refundable for the unused months on cancellation, on the insurer's form with the evidence of departure, and the person cancels from the date of the flight; a person who held Medicare under a reciprocal agreement or a pending permanent application has the enrolment end with the visa, and the card is not used abroad. The Medicare guide covers who was covered and when it ends.

Bank accounts, debts and the things that follow you

• Bank accounts: close them after the superannuation and the tax refund have arrived, or convert them to a non-resident account with the bank told of the overseas address, since an account with a dead Australian address and a lapsed phone number cannot be operated from abroad.
• Debts to the Commonwealth: a public hospital debt, an overpayment from Services Australia, a tax debt and a study loan can each be a ground for refusing a later visa until settled or under arrangement, and are settled or put on an arrangement before leaving.
• Private debts: a car loan, a credit card, a phone contract and a lease are enforceable, and a default is on the Australian credit file for years.
• Fines: unpaid traffic and other fines remain, and some states cancel the licence; a person who returns on a later visa meets them at the border or the roadside.
• The lease: the bond, the final inspection and the forwarding address.
• Driver licence: some countries exchange an Australian licence; keep it.

Leaving on time and the record

The movement records show the date of departure, and a person who leaves on or before the visa's last day has a record of compliance that every later application reads in their favour; a person who leaves after it has overstayed, which is on the record permanently, is disclosed on every later form, and carries an exclusion period of three years for a temporary visa where the overstay was more than 28 days and the person did not leave on a bridging visa E, with a waiver available for compelling circumstances. A person who realises in the last days that the flight is after the visa's end applies for a bridging visa E before the visa expires, which permits a short lawful stay to depart and avoids the exclusion, and the unlawful guide covers it. A person with a pending application who leaves without a bridging visa B has the application continue and the bridging visa end, with the consequences the application's guide sets out. The declaring guide covers what a record of overstays and refusals does later.

Coming back

A person who left on time, with the superannuation claimed and the debts settled, applies for a later visa on a clean record; the departing superannuation claim itself is no bar to a later visa, temporary or permanent, and a person who returns on a permanent visa starts superannuation afresh. A person who left with a debt, an overstay or a refusal behind them has the record the Department reads, and the consultation says what it will do to the visa they want. A person who left on a 485, a 482 or a student visa and wants to return in the same stream has the ordinary criteria to meet again, and the time abroad is neither for nor against them. The 485 ending guide covers the graduate who leaves and plans to return.

The checklist

1. Find every superannuation fund and note the member numbers.
2. Lodge the final tax return, early if income has stopped, with the residency date.
3. Settle or arrange Commonwealth and private debts and fines.
4. Cancel health cover from the departure date and claim the refund.
5. Tell the bank the overseas address, or close the accounts after the money has arrived.
6. Withdraw any pending application you do not want, with the refund where one is due.
7. Leave on or before the visa's last day, or get a bridging visa E before it ends.
8. After departure and the visa's end, claim the superannuation; if the visa is current, ask the Department to cancel it.
9. Keep the visa grants, the payslips and the tax records for the next application.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case, and not tax or financial advice. The departing Australia superannuation payment provisions of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994 and the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999, the withholding rates set under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, section 116 and the cancellation-on-request provisions of the Migration Act 1958, and public interest criterion 4014, as at the date above; the Tax Office’s current rates and procedures govern the payment and the return, and a registered tax agent advises on tax. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.