What To Do When You Are Leaving Australia Forever

Leaving Australia the time comes for a lot of us.

Some sooner than we had hoped.

Either your visa runs out, or you have just had enough of Australia and want to go home.

While this post is aimed at returning to Ireland you can still apply the majority of information to other countries.

Heading back to Ireland? This post covers the Australian side. For everything once you land, from bringing your car and belongings home tax-free to your PPS number, tax and health insurance, read our complete guide to moving back to Ireland from Australia.

So what do you do when you leave Australia? Just jump on a plane?

Yes, by all means, you can just jump on board and fly home worry-free, but there are a few things to keep in mind which I have outlined in this article.

I also have several additional articles on superannuation, tax back and our Australian Facebook groups.

I have set up a Facebook group specifically for Irish people returning to Ireland here.

Keep your Australian bank account open until every refund lands

It’s tempting to close everything before you fly, but hold off on your Australian bank account. The ATO pays tax refunds into an Australian bank account, and it suggests keeping yours open to receive your super (DASP) payment too.

Before you go:

Set up online banking and make sure your sign-in, and any security codes, will work from Ireland. If your codes go to an Aussie mobile number, switch to the app or another option before you leave.
Update your address to your Irish one.
Check the monthly fees, and switch to a no-fee account if you can, so fees don’t eat your balance while you wait.
Once your tax refund and super have landed, send the money home and close the account. Ask your bank how it handles closing from overseas before you go, as many want a signed request.

If you are transferring money before you leave Australia.

In the ideal world, you still have your Irish bank account open or can transfer the Australia funds to a family members account.

Bank of Ireland now has a dedicated team for setting up a bank account before returning home, as far as I know, they are the only bank in Ireland doing this right now.

For money transfers from Australia:

Please do not do bank to bank transfers they charge a fortune on fees and the services below are up to 8x cheaper than banks!

We recommend using any of the following money transfer services:
CurrencyFair – Sign up and get your first five transfers for free

TorFX Sign up with our link for an exclusive discounted rate. Great for larger sums of money as you get a dedicated broker.

Transferwise

Or read my money transfer guide here.

You can also read my comparison of Currency vs Transferwise.

What if I still have money in my account but can’t access it?

The length of time before an account is classed as dormant varies with different banks around 6 to 12 months is normal.

A dormancy fee is charged and the remaining balance transferred to a “lost monies account”.

The bank must be contacted directly to find out how to retrieve this money.

If you do want to claim money back, it certainly isn’t an easy process. But you can read the Gov website here

Sort out your superannuation and tax back

This is the big one. Depending on how long you’ve worked here, you could have a good chunk of super and tax waiting for you.

Your super (the DASP)

You can claim your super back as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment (DASP) once you’ve left Australia and your visa has ended.
Claim it for free online through the ATO’s DASP online application system. You can start the claim before you leave, while your documents are easy to certify, and submit it once you’ve gone.
Tax: if any of your super was earned while you were on a Working Holiday visa (417 or 462), the whole payment is taxed at 65%. Otherwise it’s 35%, or 45% on any untaxed part.
If you don’t claim it, your super is eventually transferred to the ATO as unclaimed super, but you can still claim it from the ATO later.

Our guide to claiming your super back covers it step by step.

Your tax return

Leaving for good before 30 June? You can lodge early, but only on the paper tax return form, and only if you’re leaving permanently and won’t earn any more Australian income (apart from things like bank interest). Early lodgments take about 50 business days to process.
Or wait and lodge online with myTax from Ireland, from 1 July. Make sure your myGov sign-in works from overseas before you leave.
No need to chase old employers for payment summaries: most employers now report through Single Touch Payroll, so your income statements are in myGov.
Prefer someone else to do it? Working Holiday Tax can lodge your return and claim your super for you.

More detail in our working holiday tax refund guide.

Car Insurance, Travel Insurance, + Flights when leaving Australia

Car Insurance:

So you get back to Ireland and decide to get a quote on your new car.

Only to get quoted €2000+ for third party insurance. It is a joke how these companies take advantage of Irish people returning home but for the time being, we have to suck it up.

There have been many discussions about it on my Facebook group for Irish people moving home. Join here.

One way around it is to go under someone else’s insurance for one year then it does knock a bit off the premium. But if you were driving in Australia try and get a “no claims” or just evidence that you have been driving in Australia and insured.

This is mainly for Ireland when you do return after two years your old no claims bonus even if you had 5+ years becomes void if you haven’t driven in Ireland for two years.

So this means when you do return and get a car and all that, you will have to pay full price for insurance!

If you have only had Rego, it doesn’t cover you, unfortunately.

Travel Insurance when you are leaving Australia:

A lot of people head over to Thailand, Bali or random parts of Asia before heading home. Make sure you do get some travel insurance. We have 10% off with GoInsurance.

You can pick and choose what you want to include in your policy. Very handy.

Should I ship everything when I am leaving Australia or sell it?

Depending on if you are here 1 – 5+ years you can accumulate so much stuff. It’s crazy, it just happens.

There are three options when it comes to shipping from Australia to Ireland/UK.

Option 1: You have a lot of stuff and could fill a few boxes or a container

Shipping via boat:

You move into an unfurnished place in Australia and spend $ 1000s over a few years on furniture, TVs, and household items.

Sure you can sell it, but it can be just as easy to ship it.

A great option is a Move Cube with Seven Seas Worldwide.

We also have a nice 10% off your entire shipment in the above links or get a quote here.

There are a few other shipping companies out there but Seven Seas Worldwide are one of the best and always give one of the most competitive rates, many of our readers have used them too.

You can also ship a few boxes with them. They deliver via sea so ideal if you are doing a bit of travelling first or in no rush to get everything.

Option 2: You start packing and realize I have about 70Kg’s+ here!

Shipping via air:

It happens even after one year on a working holiday visa, you just acquire so much stuff. This happens to a LOT of people returning home.

Send My Bag is a great option, you just fill a bag/box with 30+ KG’s and they come to collect it from your address.

They ship via air so it normally doesn’t take any longer than a week. Handy if you have a lot of tools and don’t want to pay the crazy extra baggage prices on most airlines.

We also have 5% off Send My Bag with this link.

Option 3: Sell everything

A lot of people go for this option. It’s up to you at the end of the day. Just keep in mind that unless you start selling early, you could end up doing a last minute sale and giving away everything away for half nothing.

On the plus side, you arrive in Ireland all fresh and ready to start again.

It’s best to post for sale posts on one of our groups around Australia. There is a full list of our groups for Irish people living in Australia here.

What if I want to ship a car or a lot of tools home?

Palmer’s relocation did a great guest post on this topic you can read all you need to know such as the cost of shipping a car home and import taxes. Read the shipping FAQ post here.

Shipping pets when you are leaving Australia

It is way too hard to leave a pet in Australia.

We recommend Dogtainers, they are highly recommended by PomsinOz. But make sure to do your research and use a reputable company.

They are Australia’s biggest locally owned and operated pet transport network in Australia

Final points for when you are leaving Australia

Returning home is and can be quite difficult. Depending on how long you have been away and where you live it can take a long time to get settled.
Although you will probably notice that a lot of things are still the same, you will feel a lot different.
All suggestions are guidelines based on feedback we have received from many Irish people moving back to Ireland.
Read some tips from Eileen who moved back to Ireland.
For a full list of resources visit our resources page.
When you do leave don’t forget about us!
Be sure to pin the image below to your Pinterest board or hit that share button it helps a lot.