"Where such breaks are used by the person to visit Australia or another foreign country they must not be excessive by comparison with the scheduled period of foreign service".
Just had a chat with my taxman about this and the above paragraph is to be inserted into TR96/15. That is what TD2002/D3 is all about. What this means is that 'excessive' amounts of time off will not be considered 'foreign service'. 23AG identifies certain temporary absences from a period of foreign service; those days representing weekends, public holidays, rostered days off, flexidays and days off in lieu. These days are consistent with a normal work regime and therefore 23 AG still applies and thus no tax is payable if tax has been paid already on that income overseas. This only applies if the terms of the contract overseas allow for time off to be taken in Australia.
What they are trying to do now is catch those that have large amounts of time off in Australia that is not considered to be covered by the above types of days off. Thus in para. 7 they give an example of someone who works 5 days and then has 12 days off. That is now considered 'excessive' and is not covered by TR96/15 and 23AG and they propose to tax it!
Don't you just love them
Last edited by Ivan Urge; 24th Apr 2002 at 15:35.