Question 9 is not a choice, and the form does not tell you
The Tax file number declaration asks your residency at question 8 and whether you want the tax-free threshold at question 9, one immediately after the other. Nothing on the form stops you answering Yes to both when the first answer has already decided the second.
A foreign resident is not entitled to the tax-free threshold. The ATO does not say prefer not to, it says you must answer No. A working holiday maker answers Noas well, because subclass 417 and 462 visas are taxed under their own schedule entirely. Between them that is a large share of the people filling this form in for the first time, and it is a paper form with two adjacent questions and no arithmetic to catch the contradiction.
The working holiday maker box is the one people miss
There are three residency options and most people see two. If you are here on a 417 or a 462 you tick working holiday maker, and you tick it even though you may have been in Australia for most of a year, even though you have one job at one address, and even though the resident test on the form appears to describe you.
One thing worth knowing that sits on the employer rather than on you: your employer has to be registered as an employer of working holiday makers for the working holiday maker rates to be applied. If they are not, the withholding comes out at the foreign resident rate instead, which is higher.
You can claim the threshold twice, in one case
The standard advice is to claim the tax-free threshold from one job only, and for most people that is right. It is not the rule though, and the difference matters to exactly the people who can least afford to get it wrong.
You may claim it from a second payer if your total income from all sources will be less than the threshold. Somebody with two small part-time jobs, told firmly to claim it once, has tax withheld from the second job all year and gets it back when they lodge. That is not a disaster, it is an interest-free loan to the Commonwealth from somebody on a low income, and it is avoidable by ticking a box correctly.
If your circumstances change during the year, in either direction, the form for telling your payer is a Withholding declaration rather than another TFN declaration.
Not giving your TFN is legal, and expensive
You are not legally required to quote a tax file number. The ATO and your payer are authorised to ask for it under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, and you are entitled to decline.
What happens then is mechanical: without a TFN or a valid exemption your payer must withhold at the top rate of tax on every payment. It is not a fine and nobody is punishing you, it is simply that the withholding tables have no information to work from and default to the worst case. You recover it through your tax return, which can be eleven months away.
If you have applied for a TFN and it has not arrived, tick the applying box. That buys you 28 days at the standard rate, and it is a deadline rather than an arrangement: after 28 days without the number your payer moves to the top rate.
The exemption list contradicts itself, or looks like it does
You can claim an exemption from quoting a TFN if you are under 18 and do not earn enough to pay tax, or if you receive certain pensions, benefits or allowances from Services Australia, the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission.
Then the exception: JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Austudy and Parenting Payment are Services Australia payments where you must quote your TFN. So the category that grants the exemption contains the four payments that remove it, and if you are on one of them the exemption box is not yours. The tool above lists that as a visible option that fails, rather than leaving it off the list, because leaving it off is what makes people guess.
Age on its own is not the under-18 test either. The test is whether you earn enough to pay tax, and a 17 year old working full time does.
Why there is no dollar figure anywhere on this page
Deliberate. Every rate and threshold in this area moves at the start of the financial year, and a tax page carrying a stale number is worse than a tax page carrying none. What does not move from year to year is which rate applies to you, and that is the question this answers.
It is also the reason this tool exists at all. A withholding calculator for Australia would need the current schedules and would need watching every July. A form checker needs the instructions, which change rarely and are published in full.
Britain is the odd one out, which is why there are four of these
This page has three siblings: a UK tax code checker, an American W-4 checker and a Canadian TD1 checker. They exist separately because the instrument genuinely differs rather than the vocabulary.
In Britain, HMRC works out a tax code and issues it to your employer. You are told what it is. Everywhere else the employee fills the form in themselves and the employer acts on what you wrote, which puts the responsibility for getting it right on the person with the least information. That is the same reason all three non-UK forms have a question that people routinely answer wrong, and it is why a comparison page exists rather than one page with a country dropdown.
Common questions
Do I have to give my employer my TFN?
No. Quoting a tax file number is not a legal requirement, and the ATO says so plainly. What follows is not a penalty either, it is a rule: without a TFN or a valid exemption your payer has to withhold at the top rate of tax on every payment. You get the difference back through your tax return, which means you have lent it to the government for up to a year.
Should I claim the tax-free threshold from this job?
If you are an Australian resident and this is your only job, yes. If you already claim it somewhere else, then only if your total income from all sources will be under the threshold. If you are a foreign resident or a working holiday maker you answer No, and that is not a preference: a foreign resident is not entitled to the threshold at all.
Can I claim the tax-free threshold from two jobs?
Yes, in one specific case, and general advice usually gets this wrong. You may claim it from a second payer if your total income from all sources will be less than the threshold. Somebody with two small part-time jobs who is told to only ever claim it once has tax withheld all year that they then wait until their return to get back.
I am on a working holiday visa. Am I an Australian resident for tax?
It does not matter, because working holiday maker is its own box. If you are on a subclass 417 or 462 visa you tick the working holiday maker box, not the resident one, and you answer No to the tax-free threshold question. People on those visas often tick resident because they have been here for months and it feels true. Your employer also has to be registered as an employer of working holiday makers for those rates to apply.
What if I have applied for a TFN but do not have it yet?
Tick the applying box. Your payer then withholds at the standard rate rather than the top rate, and you have 28 days to get the number to them. It is a deadline rather than an open-ended grace period: after 28 days without it they must move to the top rate on future payments.
Who can claim an exemption from quoting a TFN?
Someone under 18 who does not earn enough to pay tax, someone on certain Services Australia pensions, benefits or allowances, someone on a DVA service pension under the Veterans Entitlement Act 1986, and someone paid by the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission. The catch is that JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Austudy and Parenting Payment are Services Australia payments where you must quote your TFN, so the general rule and the exception point in opposite directions.
I have finished paying off my HELP debt. Do I fill in a new TFN declaration?
No, that is the wrong form. A loan you have finished repaying is notified to your payer with a Withholding declaration. If you leave it, your payer keeps withholding for a debt that no longer exists.
Where do I download the TFN declaration form?
You cannot any more. The ATO withdrew the downloadable version, so the options are your payer own electronic form, completing it in ATO online services through myGov, or ordering the paper NAT 3092 from the ATO publication ordering service or by phone.