Comments by "Matthew Nirenberg" (@matthewnirenberg) on "Here’s PROOF Australia’s Taxes are Going Wild" video.

The problem is that this new definition could be interpreted by the authorities as "if you don't live full time indefinitely in one place, you'll pay us tax". The problem isn't the short term, the problem is that it stops you ever traveling or living a trifecta lifestyle even several years down the road once your life is 100% abroad. The reason its a problem is that the definition is whatever the ATO says it is and thus they can change it as they like. Basically they're so desperate for money, they're making it extremely difficult to live should you leave - this is instead of outright banning people from leaving. The only long-term option once you're 100% certain of never going to Australia will likely be to renounce.
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@svensulzmann4282 Its the 13th largest which means its the biggest of the smallest. The 10th largest is 2.5x larger than Australia. As for infrastructure, you mean the unmaintained crap that's failing rapidly because even though the maintenance costs on bills go through the roof, the companies would rather pocket the money than actually repair anything. The water, gas, elec grid companies just announced mega profits (their largest ever), yet there's SFA done to maintain or improve the "grid". This is whilst the poor and the elderly are being told to "not use heaters and to get blankets and jackets" if they can't afford heating. Stop talking utter BS about Australia, especially since you don't live there and are about 30yrs behind on reality.
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Australia is desperate for money, the spend like its going out of fashion and instead of encouraging industry and exports, their answer to running out of money is to borrow more and to increase taxes. The Australian govt are like addicted gamblers losing every last cent.
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Simply having super shouldn't make you tax resident, don't have it invested, let it stagnate and slowly drain away courtesy of fees. Also, don't pay into it if you're not living in Australia. Unless you qualify to access your super I don't think there's any way to move it out of Australia as even NZ won't let you withdraw it.
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You're dreaming if you think it adds certainty. It doesn't - it muddies the waters as even if you live 2+yrs in another country, should you have a 3mth holiday in another country Australia could argue you haven't stayed long enough in your country of tax residence and thus demand you pay tax to them (Australia) just for being a citizen, what if legitimate business travel ends up as 5mths? There is no "after X yrs you're free to live how you like as long as you stay abroad". If you think its not law and thus nothing to worry about, I hope you have millions upon millions to burn on legal fees going to court if the ATO don't agree with you. The cost of going to court makes it irrelevant as to whether or not its a law or a ruling as the outcome will be the same - you'll likely lose to the ATO and courts will take all your money in fees, even if you win, you'll still lose as you'll go broke thanks to legal fees, thus going to court isn't an option. This is the problem of govts having the final say and the power to screw you around until you comply.
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PhillyWilly in the Philippines DTA's are basically a thing of the past as with the new Australian tax rules (regarding residency), Australia is currently abolishing DTA's; they basically don't like people getting tax credits for tax paid to other governments and would rather you pay full tax to them.
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If you're wanting to rely on a DTA, be quick as Australia is working to abolish DTA's.
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@person.X. Five Eyes Alliance, CRS, global passport database, other data sharing between allied govts. Its very easy for governments to track you everywhere you go. The ATO can check any passport issued to you by any country as if you've paid taxes in Australia or moved money out of Australia you've had to legally give the details of every passport you have - all they need is your name, passport number and its expiry. Plus the ATO have literal datacentres performing transforms of link analysis where every bit of data in the world that they can access about you is linked to you - this includes data shared between governments.
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@petercomfort9651 All well and good for you to say that but reality will show that the ATO will declare that they aren't satisified you spent enough time in your country of tax residency and thus they'll say to pay up. If you think Australia wouldn't say that, you're naive and ignoring just how desperate for money Australia is. Also note that the new ruling says that if you lose one of the four tests other than test 1 (right to residence), you're on the hook for taxes. Test 1 (your right to residency) is bullshit and shouldn't be a test - no other country (except the USA) considers citizenship as a tax residency test. Also, test 3 (Australian family) extends to sibling and parents. Well that's another test lost even though you can't force others to leave the country. The single biggest problem is that the law itself doesn't set the rules, the problem is that the ATO can make it up as they see fit. Even if it plays out as you say, what's to say they don't change the rules just to suit them in 5 minutes? The people who have appealed without spending small fortunes have been able to get the ATO to change their mind internally, they most certainly didn't go to court for any prolonged period, nor did they have to pay lawyers to represent them from abroad.
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The problem is, you can't live a trifecta lifestyle abroad anymore, even if you're tax resident in another country as all Australia has to do is say you didn't stay in that one country long enough - your centre of life means nothing when they say you didn't stay there long enough. At least prior to this as long as you genuinely lived abroad and your centre of life was there, you could have one or two 2 month holidays somewhere else or travel a lot for business. That's now all risking you being declared tax resident in Australia. This is the opposite of the ability to have a clean break - this muddies the waters.
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You're kidding yourself if you think that Australia wouldn't happily double tax people. Australia would! They're actively getting rid of DTA's, increasing taxes, bringing in new taxes, levies, making it harder to leave the tax system, starting to use their deeming laws to demand more taxes. As for citizenship based - that's purely down to choosing to do that. Heck they already double tax us when buying fuel - GST is charged on the amount including fuel excise, its supposed to be on the amount before fuel excise gets added - even though this is illegal (to tax a tax) the govt don't care as they make more money. As I currently understand it, if you move to a 0-tax country (St. Kitts and Nevis) genuinely and live there full time you should be fine. The problem now arises in that if you're an Australian citizen, the govt get to decide if you've spent enough time in the country you claim your tax resident of (in this example St. Kitts and Nevis) so if they check the international passport system and find that you've spent 3 months in Europe and one month in the UK, they'll say you haven't lived enough in St. Kitts and Nevis and thus Australia will demand you pay full taxes in Australia. If you're wondering how they know all your passports - if you look at any AUSTRAC form for declaring money, assets or finance, you'll see they demand you list all passports, passport numbers and name of country of citizenship. This information is only collected to better track and monitor you, its got nothing to do with preventing crime or any of the AML/KYC garbage. If you've ever filled in an eTA, ESTA, the soon to be in use ETIAS, or applied for a visa, they collect the same information and share it with all allied governments. The other way they collect this info is when reporting foreign bank accounts to the ATO as its required for all citizens to declare their foreign bank accounts.
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@therock8224 Rubbish. There's plenty that they can do. Here's a few of the things they can do: 1. Deactivate / Cancel your passport - this stops you from using your passport, invalidates any visa or permit tied to that passport and makes your presence in a country abroad illegal (if you entered using that passport). 2. Freeze / seize you bank accounts - they can do this to all your bank accounts. Most "western" countries (especially Australia) require that all bank accounts that belong to you or that you have access to are reported to them. Even if you illegally don't report them, CRS and Five Eyes Alliance will all data share and report so there's no hiding accounts. 3. They can put you on the no-fly and the no-sail lists which means you can't travel internationally 4. They can issue Amber or Red Interpol notices for your arrest for "financial crimes / tax evasion" - this will result in you being arrested and extradited to Australia. It will also screw up your future travel options as you'll now have a criminal record. Also note that many countries that have mandatory conscription/draft will still prosecute you for failing to serve, even after the upper age limit.
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@davidbrayshaw3529 If you believe that BS figure then you're gullible - the govt tamper with the figures to make everything look all wonderful for statistical purposes even when the exact opposite is true. The ABS consider anyone who's a volunteer (even for 1 minute a year) to be considered full-time employed for statistical purposes; if you have a Working with Children volunteer card, then the ABS consider you "full-time employed for statistical purposes". Just like the economy, they recent dropped one factor from the GDP calculation so they could make the economy look better. The problem is too many people are on welfare in other categories (DSP, refugee, etc.) who know how to game the system, combine that with this infinite refugee intake and there's a heap of people living on the taxpayers dollar. If there were as few as you are intimating, taxes wouldn't be increasing like they currently are. Unemployment (general) and the aged pension are two of the smallest dole payments, there are plenty of people receiving 5-6 different payments as they qualify for multiple categories/payments. As cost of living continues to sky rockets and houses continue to be unaffordable, and, businesses continue to shut down, welfare will become the single largest drain as the economy collapses.
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