Can the ATO chase me overseas?

What the ATO can reach without leaving Australia

Moving overseas does not move your Australian footprint with you. Anything still here is within easy reach.

• Bank accounts and term deposits with Australian institutions, through a garnishee notice that needs no court order.
• Australian income such as rent, which can be collected from the tenant or property manager, and payments from Australian clients or platforms.
• Refunds and credits. Any future Australian tax refund, GST credit or super co-contribution is offset against the debt.
• Property. The ATO can obtain judgment and take enforcement steps against Australian real estate, although this is slow and used mainly for large debts.
• Company roles. If you are a director of an Australian company, a director penalty notice is posted to your ASIC address and the 21 days run whether or not you are in the country to read it.
• Business credit. A business tax debt of $100,000 or more, overdue more than 90 days without engagement, can be reported to credit bureaus.

Interest also keeps compounding, currently at 11.43% p.a., so a debt left alone for a few years is a much larger debt.

Collecting through foreign tax authorities

The ATO also has formal ways to reach you abroad, set out in its practice statement on cross border recovery of tax debts.

• Assistance in collection. Some of Australia's tax treaties, plus the multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, let the ATO ask a foreign revenue authority to collect an Australian tax debt as if it were its own, or to preserve assets while recovery is arranged. The ATO's list of reciprocal arrangements includes New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Switzerland, Jersey and Papua New Guinea, and the multilateral convention extends the network further.
• Enforcing judgments. An Australian court judgment for a tax debt can be registered and enforced in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea under reciprocal arrangements.

For the ATO to use these routes you generally need to be resident in that country or hold assets there, and the debt has to be a final, enforceable amount. In practice the ATO uses them for larger debts where it knows where you are. In a country with no arrangement, its practical reach is limited to what you left in Australia and to your return, described at I left Australia with a tax debt.

What it cannot do, and what to watch for

The ATO cannot have you arrested overseas for a tax debt, cannot cancel your passport, and cannot stop you entering Australia. A departure prohibition order is the reverse: it stops someone with a significant debt and the means to pay from leaving, so it matters if you plan to come back and travel again.

Two things to watch. First, the ATO will still contact you by email, SMS and phone, and so will scammers who target expats with fake arrest threats. A genuine ATO message never asks for payment by gift card or crypto and never threatens arrest, and the tests are at ATO letters, calls and texts. Second, the debt can be managed from anywhere. Payment plans for debts up to $200,000 can be set up through myGov, and the mechanics of paying from abroad are at how do I pay the ATO from overseas. A plan that is kept stops garnishees and keeps the foreign collection machinery switched off.

What to do next

1. List what you still hold in Australia: accounts, property, rental income, company directorships. That is what the ATO reaches first.
2. Keep myGov access or authorise a tax agent so you can see the balance, lodge outstanding returns and respond to notices.
3. Set up a payment plan or ask for interest remission from overseas rather than letting the debt compound and be handed to a foreign authority.

More questions: 12 Life situations questions answered · Full guide: Can't pay your tax bill