Bringing Money to Australia: What's Taxed and What Isn't

Australia doesn't tax the savings you bring into the country — it taxes the income that money earns afterwards. This film walks through interest, property sold before and after you become a resident, gifts and inheritances, and why record-keeping matters more than the tax rules themselves. Figures as at September 2026.

Read the full guide, with official sources →

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 Bringing money to Australia?
  2. 0:11 Capital moving in:
  3. 0:23 Example: 2% on $20,000
  4. 0:37 Sold before you're a
  5. 0:47 Only the gain since
  6. 1:06 Temporary residents: generally exempt
  7. 1:16 Overseas interest is assessable
  8. 1:28 Gifts, inheritances: not taxed.
  9. 1:39 Keep at least 12 months
  10. 1:52 AUSTRAC reporting isn't
  11. 2:06 The real risk:

Transcript

Worried the money you bring to Australia will be taxed? It won't be — but what that money earns afterwards might.

Australia taxes income, not wealth. Moving your existing savings into an Australian bank account is a transfer of capital — not a taxable event, no matter the amount.

Here's the scale of it. A savings account earning 2 percent on an AUD 20,000 balance generates about $400 in interest a year — and that $400 is assessable, not the $20,000 itself.

Sell property overseas before you become a tax resident, and the proceeds are pre-arrival capital — no Australian capital gains tax applies at all.

Sell it after you become a resident, and the cost base resets to the property's market value on your residency date — so only the gain from that point is taxed. In the guide's example: bought for GBP 200,000, worth GBP 350,000 at residency, sold two years later for GBP 400,000.

Temporary residents are generally exempt from capital gains tax on foreign assets altogether — overseas property, shares, and even cryptocurrency.

If you're a permanent resident, interest on any overseas bank account you keep is assessable — and the ATO receives account data from many countries through the Common Reporting Standard.

Gifts and inheritances aren't taxed in Australia — there's no gift tax or inheritance tax. But income an inherited asset earns afterwards, like rent, is assessable.

The real risk isn't the tax rules — it's proof. Keep at least 12 months of bank statements, payslips and sale contracts, so a large deposit can be explained as capital, not income.

AUSTRAC reporting and tax reporting are separate systems. Your bank reports electronic transfers of any size, and cash transactions of $10,000 or more, to AUSTRAC — but neither creates a tax bill on its own.

The most common problem for new migrants isn't misunderstanding the tax rules — it's not being able to prove where a large deposit actually came from.

The full guide, with the official sources, is on migratio.com.au. The link is in the description.

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