PALM Scheme Visa

Quick summary

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PALM scheme

✓Short-term = foreign resident

✓Condition 8576 matters

✓Claim tax + super together

Video coming soon

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

Under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, workers from Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste can work in Australia in short-term placements of up to 9 months, or long-term placements of one to four years. If you have worked on PALM, you almost certainly have a tax refund and superannuation waiting.

Your residency for tax purposes

How you are taxed depends on your residency status — a separate concept from your visa. As a general rule the ATO accepts:

Short-term PALM workers (up to 9 months) as foreign residents for tax purposes
Long-term PALM workers (one to four years) as Australian residents for tax purposes

The multi-year visa point (condition 8576)

Here is what confuses almost everyone. Some short-term workers enter on a multi-year visa of up to four years. On paper that looks long-term. But you still only complete 9-month contracts, and visa condition 8576 requires you to leave after each contract and return for the next. Even with the longer visa, the ATO still accepts these workers as foreign residents for tax purposes because of how those contracts and departures work. This changes your whole return, so it is important to get right.

Claiming your super (DASP)

While you work, your employer pays super for you. When you leave Australia permanently and your visa has ceased, you claim it back as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment (DASP) — often larger than the tax refund.

Every fund needs a certified copy of your passport to confirm your identity (see the How Certification Works chapter). Each fund handles it differently: Australian Retirement Trust and AustralianSuper want it uploaded to their portal, Rest accepts it by email, and Cbus, ANZ and HESTA ask you to post it.

How you get paid

Payment goes to an Australian bank account (fastest), an international account, or by cheque if you have neither or your super is held by the ATO (see the How You Get Paid chapter).

Why claim tax and super together

Many operators handle only the tax return, or only the super — so a worker misses one pot of money, or pays two sets of fees. We claim both in one engagement, so your residency is worked out correctly, your refund is claimed properly, and your super is chased with the right fund using the right documents.

Not sure how this applies to you? At ALITAX we handle exactly these situations every day — and check what you’re owed in super and tax, for free.

✎ 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.