Hi, if I earn money from services on the internet (web design/programming) and transfer it to my bank account in Australia, will I have to declare this to the government come tax time? Also, the transactions took place with overseas customers so I'm not sure if this means I don't have to declare. Thanks
yes unfortunately you do have to declare. Its no different to any other business. Unless your a professional online poker player?
I live in Australia. So that means that overseas transactions still incur a tax in Australia? And what if the individual amounts sent to my paypal (about $400 at a time) are under the $600 mark? Is this okay, or is $600 the total amount for the year?
I have no idea what the limit is for Australian taxes, I would contact someone locally or google for that information. The amount they give would likely be for the year as opposed to month. The fact that the transactions are occurring overseas doesn't somehow magically protect you from paying taxes. The money you make online is no different than money you would make working an irl job, you still need to pay taxes on it.
You have to legally declare all money you make to your countries government, but as far as I know, Paypal doesn't send your transaction information anywhere. Take it how you'd like.
Alright, I guess I'll play it on the safe side and declare then. Thanks guys for the help. +rep to all that helped
I am from Singapore and I believe our tax laws as far as domicile would be similiar to that of Australia since we would have based most of the tax laws from the UK. The main test of where you are responsible for paying tax in is where are you when you were doing the work for your customers, it does not depend on where your customer is or that Paypal is located in another country. If you were in Australia doing the web design then your income would be taxation in Australia. If however you need to travel physically to your customer's country to perform the job then you pay tax in that country. Tax laws are quite simple in that respect since the one who would be responsible to paying taxes on income is the one who do the work and not the one paying.
Hire a Chartered Acccountant in your country. He will be able to advice you better than anybody and perhaps he can save a lot more money against paying income tax to govt.