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Leaving Australia?

Departing Australia — Your Checklist

Quick summary

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Departing Australia

✓Keep SIM, bank & licence active

✓Free estimate, no questions asked

✓At ALITAX, we check your super from day one

Video coming soon

ALITAX · Bilal Jivraj — Registered Tax Agent 25287564. Original guidance from 10+ years of DASP and tax casework.

When it is time to leave, a few practical steps make sure your tax and super refunds actually reach you — and are not lost because an account closed or a phone number went dead. Here is Bilal Jivraj’s departing checklist.

🌐 Read this in your language

Translations are provided for convenience. The English version is authoritative — if anything is unclear, please contact us and we will explain it to you personally.

1. Keep your SIM card active

At ALITAX, we recommend keeping your Australian SIM card active — buy roaming for around 3 months so you keep receiving verification codes on your phone. Many banks, funds and the ATO send codes by SMS, and you need them to receive your refunds.

2. Keep your TFN active — and confidential

Keep your TFN active, and never share your personal details with anyone — except trusted people like us, so we can genuinely help you claim.

3. Keep a bank account open

If you can, visit your bank in person and ask them to keep your account open for 6–12 months even after your visa expires, so you have no trouble receiving your super and tax refunds.

Why we recommend two or three banks

This is the reason we suggested opening several accounts on arrival: when you leave, some banks close your account immediately, but in our experience banks like ANZ keep accounts open for a long period. Tell your bank you are leaving Australia and ask them to keep the account open until you have received any remaining tax refunds, DASP super refunds, and insurance refunds. Having more than one account means if one closes, another is still there to receive your money.

4. Keep your driver’s licence active

Keep your driver’s licence valid for identity checks, in case you need to provide it to a third party — but keep it confidential.

5. Contact ALITAX — and get a free estimate

This is the big one. Contact us and we will honestly guide you through everything and send you a free tax summary showing what you are entitled to — super, unclaimed tax, and whether we can amend a prior return (for example by claiming a Medicare levy exemption) to get you the maximum refund.

Don’t just rely on AI that says “do it yourself”

There are so many things a generic tool cannot check. We review your super summary from your very first day of employment to see whether you were paid the correct amount of super. If your visa changed — say from working holiday to 482, student or another visa — we make sure the fund withholds the correct, lower tax (for example 35% instead of 65%). We run a proper residency test — even on a working holiday visa you might be a resident if you are from an NDA country and meet the criteria — and we maximise your refund accordingly.

Contact us before you leave Australia

This matters more than anything else on this page. Contact us before you leave. We know how to guide you properly to get your final tax return done, and to arrange your certification correctly while you are still here.

We know each fund’s exact requirements

We have dealt with many super funds — Rest, Australian Retirement Trust (ART), Cbus, HESTA, Hostplus, Virgin Super, Australian Meat Industry Super and many others. Each fund has its own requirements, and we know them. At ALITAX, we check everything and guide you accordingly, so your claim is not rejected or delayed.

Two big reasons to reach us while you are still in Australia:

It costs far less. Claiming your super and tax is much cheaper and easier while you are in Australia than once you are overseas.
We can fix problems immediately. Issues like a name check or date-of-birth mismatch are simple to fix here, but become very problematic once you have left.

The overseas certification trap

Once you are overseas, certification becomes hard. In countries like Brazil and Italy it is very difficult to get documents translated into English in a form the super fund will accept — many notaries write in the local language, sometimes using words that funds simply will not accept, causing long delays for no reason. Sorting this out before you leave avoids all of it.

Important: we cannot certify from overseas

ALITAX cannot provide certification once you are overseas — the certifier must sight and sign the original document in person. This is exactly why arranging your certification before you leave Australia is so important. See the How Certification Works chapter for who can certify and the exact wording required.

PALM workers — protect yourself from impersonation

At ALITAX we have seen a lot of impersonation affecting PALM scheme workers. At ALITAX, we strongly recommend you speak to us directly rather than handing your information to any agent who offers to claim your tax and super on your behalf. Verify who you are dealing with — it is your money and your identity.

We provide a genuinely good service — but first, we need to be able to reach you, and you need to reach us. Get in touch before you go.

Our promise on fees

Fee from refund — nothing upfront (or a guarantor where there is no refund; see the fees chapters)
We may refund our fee, fully or partially, if we genuinely cannot progress your case and the fault is ours
The free estimate is yours with no questions asked — even if you decide to use another agent, you can take our summary to compare, so you know you are not being tricked

Premium service, fair and flexible

We charge a premium price for a premium, ethical, fully lawful service — but we apply discounts case by case. We understand paying a fee from overseas is hard, so we adjust to accommodate you where we can. Many times, when we see we cannot add value for money, we simply give you honest, lawful advice you can rely on — at no charge. At ALITAX we have seen companies take refunds into their own account and take a percentage without the client’s knowledge. That is never us. Contact us at alitax.com.au/dasp or WhatsApp +61 422 665 268.

🎥 Spoken version — video script (about 70 seconds)

Read straight to camera. Pause at each line break.

If you are leaving Australia soon, stop and listen — because this is the moment where most people lose money without realising.

Five things.

One. Keep your phone number active. Buy roaming for about three months. Your bank, your super fund and the tax office will all send you verification codes. If you cannot receive them, everything stops.

Two. Keep your tax file number active, and keep it private.

Three. Keep an Australian bank account open for six to twelve months after your visa ends. Your refunds need somewhere to land.

Four. Keep your driver licence valid. It is useful identification when a fund asks you to prove who you are.

And five — this is the big one. Talk to us before you fly.

While you are in Australia, we can certify your documents face to face. Once you are overseas, we cannot. You will need a public notary or an Australian consulate, and that costs you time and money.

It is always easier, and always cheaper, to sort this out before you leave.

And one last thing. Wait until your final super contributions have arrived before you claim. Claim too early, and that last payment may be lost.

[End — on-screen: alitax.com.au/dasp · WhatsApp +61 422 665 268 · Registered Tax Agent 25287564]

✎ Written by Bilal Jivraj

Original work of Bilal Jivraj, Director and Registered Tax Agent (No. 25287564), ALITAX — based on 10+ years of DASP and tax casework. © 2026 ALITAX. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, republished or distributed without the written permission of the author. When referenced, please cite ALITAX — Bilal Jivraj as the source.