Can anybody shed any light on the 'living away from home' allowance/ tax relief?

 

the only one i know of is the p85 form you can fill it in online i think and claim back your tax if you are owed any????

 

The allowance is something the Oz goverment will pay to certain visa holders,def not PR most likely student ones ,im really not sure how it works though,have you looked at the CENTRELINK website?
Cal x

 

OHHH

Didnt know about this we are going on a student visa could this mean us :rofl:

Will have a look on centrelink to check

Debzsx:wub:

 

you get LAFHA on 457 visa too...or at least i was lucky enough to get it in 2000.

 

A LAFHA (living away from home allowance) is an allowance the EMPLOYER pays to an EMPLOYEE to compensate for additional expenses incurred and any disadvantages suffered because the employee is required to live away from their usual place of residence in order to perform their employment-related duties.

Examples of employees on appointments of finite duration who will generally be living away from their usual place of residence are foreign nationals employed in Australia (expatriate employees).

The employee would be regarded as living away from the usual place of residence provided that they intend to return there at the end of the term of the transfer.

The advantage is that this LAFHA payment is tax free, if the ATO (Australian Tax Office) deems the claimant to be genuinely entitled to the claim.

Buying a house in OZ, or applying for citizenship, will negate the claim.

 

Thanks for that Ausinfo ,,looks like we have a good member here guys!!
Cal x

 

Thxs for this info

As we are are hopefully going on a student visa for 2 years do I take it form the above that we would qualify for this while we are working our 20hrs per week or is it only certain employers??...looked on centrelink site and this is a much better explaination.

Debzsx:wub:

 

Centrelink is actually not involved in this particular allowance, although they do have something else that involves the same term "living away from home allowance", but that allowance is not the same as the one that Expatriates would claim.

 

Ahh I see hence why I couldnt understand the Centrelink site

Is it something we can ask for when applying for jobs or is it best for the employer to tell us dont want to seem too pushy

Thxs again Ausinfo:wink:

Debzsx:wub: