Tax company takes legal action over Australia’s backpacker tax
Taxback.com, a WYSE Travel Confederation member and specialist in personal tax refunds, is disputing Australia’s recent Backpacker Tax increase. The country introduced a 15 percent tax rate increase at the beginning of 2017 for backpackers who spent time in Australia on Working Holiday Visas. Taxback.com Commercial Director, Eileen Devereux, said the action was an important step to protect foreign workers and Australia’s reputation as a working holiday destination.
“We believe the Backpacker Tax is unfair,” explained Devereux. “It targets the poorest taxpayers in Australia who in the long term are de-defacto ambassadors for Australia. Taxback.com has a long-standing relationship with backpackers and the industry and our motivation is to seek fair treatment for our clients.”
The company argues that the Backpacker Tax violates non-discrimination clauses built into tax treaties that Australia has signed with eight countries: the UK, the US, Germany, Finland, Chile, Japan, Norway and Turkey. These clauses prohibit unequal tax treatment of citizens from these countries compared with Australians. International tax treaties signed by Australia override domestic tax laws.
