Brett Evans

People find it difficult, especially those who haven't joined the expert ranks before, about residency in terms of is it the right of a boat, is it the right to get through the passport, you know, at the airport, or is it the right to pay taxes?

They're all three very different reasons.

Most people will find they will base themselves in one location as their permanent boat because, don't forget, as far as the AT is concerned, under the current tax rules,

if you're a tax resident of nowhere, you default being a tax resident of Australia, which for some people it suits.

So if you think about it, I actually don't mind clients who are spending a lot of time overseas being a tax resident of Australia, because I like to strip things down into two categories.

principal place of residence and super, tax-free and tax-free.

And we've seen that from the budget, even more so now.

So if you become a non-resident, you lose the main residence exemption on your principal place of residence.

Whereas if you retain your tax residency in Australia, you keep that.

So it's not a bad thing.

So if you want to spend six months in Australia and six months in France, then you might want to do six months, 6.6 months in Australia and, you know, 3.4 months in France.

Yeah.

So, but the question you have to ask at the very, very beginning, can I legally live in that country for longer than, you know, obviously in the Schengen countries, you've got 90 days and then in one day to day period.

So you could be there for three months, but are you a tax resident?

No, but you're not going to be able to spend 91 days there.

It'll depend.

It'll depend on your circumstances.

So what assets you hold is an issue.

The time spent in country, can you legally go to that country is another one.

Obviously Thailand's always a popular choice because lower cost of living.