The Swiss have decided to double-tax me from the 2014 calendar year and say I have to convince the ATO to refund me for the period in question.

Are there Aussies with experience in this? Complicating factor that we use the July-June financial year.

Please tell me it's easy. I send a letter to the ATO and they send back a cheque and a lollypop a week later.

Maybe you need to actually explain what has happenend rather then putting a panicy post that says bugger all

The lollipop will probably get taxed.

Hello Wallabies. I'm a proofreader. 'happened' and 'panicky'. Full stop at the end of the sentence.

I thought that there might be general guidelines as to how to phrase things for example. With the ATO it is often the case that if you phrase things one way it works, and another way it doesn't.

Some specific details for me follow.

The ATO has defined me as I am a tax resident of Australia so far and a physical resident of Switzerland. I have put in a notification each year to that effect in Switzerland, on Swiss tax office (whatever it's called) advice, and paid no tax here. Apparently everybody has been happy with the situation.

However. Recently I received a bill for tax for the entire of my income for 2014. The Swiss have evidently decided that they should be collecting tax from me, from 2014. Nothing in my circumstances has changed. According to the chap I spoke to, they have simply decided to be more rigorous about enforcing the relevant law.

He was very sympathetic - the Australians shouldn't be taxing you, get it back from them, of course you can't pay double-tax.

The Australians, having spent several mornings up at ungodly hours talking to them, are very sympathetic, no, you shouldn't be double-taxed, pretty much seem to agree that they shouldn't have been taxing me, but to get the Swiss to drop it. The agreement is anonymous advice from a person in tax who you aren't allowed to know. So, it doesn't mean anything in particular. However, having looked at the tax treaty between the two, it is clear that the Swiss should be taxing me.

Everybody agrees that I shouldn't be paying double tax but that's quite a different thing, I expect, from getting anything done about it.

So, I thought that Australians who have been through this might have tips. Particularly, as I say, re the non-aligned tax years. The last guy I spoke to in the ATO said they didn't have any agreements about how to deal with that. I find it unlikely that I'm the first person to find themselves in this position.

Also, I'm reluctant to pay this tax bill until I get a refund for my Australian tax, but how long is that process likely to take? I thought that if I apply for a refund and don't get it, at least then I will have a ruling on paper that I can show to the Swiss as evidence that they should drop it.

The Swiss have offered to extend the deadline for paying the tax, but nonetheless, it would be interesting to know how long this process would take with the ATO.

I figured somebody would have something useful to say. I won't declare it.

This would appear to be the important part. Apart from the "why", I suspect it is the labeling that is causing the problem.

When you filled out your Swiss tax return did you put down you OZ income and OZ tax paid?

Did you seek professional guidance in helping you fill out your Swiss tax return?

Hi there some typos in my first answer and a degree of checkiness

How long have you been in Switzerland and how are you paid?

Are you paid as a local contract or as a expat type arrangement where you would be considered as resident of Australia. There is a limit I think on how long you can remain as tax resident in Australia under both Australian and Swiss tax laws. In Australia it is generally the case that you are not able to be tax resident in Austalia once you spend more then 6 months in another country earning an income in that country. At least it used to be that way.

I actually would think it is strange that the swiss allowed you to be non resident for tax purposes beyond a year. So it is likely correct that you should be taxed by switzerland. In terms of tax refund in Australia you should simply be proving that you are paying tax in Switzerland and make sure you are non resident in Australia for tax ( this will mean you pay a higher rate on any aussie earnings)

In terms of NOT paying a tax bill in either end it is not a very good idea, you would be better to pay and then chase the refund

Hope this helps and apologies for me being checky. PS I am economical on full stops on forums as they are not as necessary as peiple think

I am fully with saving the full stops because you never know when there will be a shortage in the future. But I can't stop using them.

Almost all my income is in Australia, I have an ABN and freelance various things to do with publishing and the booktrade - I've done such a small amount of work here that I have declared and paid tax on it.

I started living here late 2010 and I think part of the problem is that they spent a period around then renegotiating the tax treaty and as a consequence it was impossible at the time to get information. I asked various professionals, but in the end, not getting useful advice that way, I went with consulting the various taxation authorities, figuring that if I was upfront with both of them what could go wrong? Ahem.

Yes, I have done exactly that, which they requested: I give them proof of payment of the tax in Australia, and that has always satisfied them. So, since they were clear on that and it seemed straightforward, I haven't used a tax consultant here.

It is all about labelling. I have an ABN (just for services provided), and that makes the rules slightly different from individual returns, but the treaty is clear, I should be being taxed here, not Australia.

Anyway. I guess it'll all be sorted in the end.

The most likely source of the confusion and what may be causing the ongong issue is your ABN since I suspect an Australian ABN needs to be taxed in Australia. If you were an individual without the ABN then this ussue may be much easier.

There are also some sections on the ATO website concerning residency tests and the consequences of not properly cutting ties with Australia. The ABN may be part of the problem

Quite right. But the tax treaty makes it clear that it is necessary to have a physical place of business in Australia in order that the tax be liable there. That is an office or a warehouse or something. I'm only selling services from my home office on my computer. When I clarified this with the last of various ATO guys I've talked to, he seemed to think it was clear that it is the Swiss that should be collecting the tax. At the same time, however, that didn't stop him from saying that I should try to get the Swiss drop the back-dating claim. He suggested that I put it as a foreign income tax offset.

But I'd rather try to get it back from the ATO in the first instance, and then try wheedling with the Swiss if that doesn't work.

PS: I do hope this post may be useful for others who may find themselves in such a situation. I doubt I'm the first person in the history of Swiss-Australian relations who has found themselves in the predicament.

My progress so far: the ATO is happy that I should be paying in Switzerland and not in Australia and has refunded me all the relevant tax paid for the various years.

An endorsement: everybody at the ATO is always on your side. In my discussions with them over the last months, I never felt other than their chief aim was to get me paying the least tax possible.

This reply is probably fair to late (and potentially irrelevant) but my husband lives in Switzerland but works for an NZ company (with no offices outside of NZ), on an NZ contract, and is paid in NZ$ into an NZ bank account.
However, we are registered as "non-resident" with the NZ Tax department and pay our tax in Switzerland (our place of residence). Never had any problems in the past.

Might be important to note that this arrangement also means that he has to pay AVS in Switzerland....

I never had a problem. But they are thieves in ATO. Suddenly a non resident has to pay a 500% increase in yearly Land Tax.Just wondering what would happen if I refused to pay all Australia Taxes.