Tax question

If he's working for an Australian company then he'll pay tax via them. I don't think that matters where he lives. You can only be resident in one country & I think that is the one where you spend most of the time. He could possibly pay tax at a higher rate. Phone up the IRD or go have a meeting with them & find out what you need to do this end. Then phone the ATO in Australia and find out what he needs to do there. It will come down to residency rules. He won't be a resident I think cause you all aren't shifting. ATO Link This link will help a little bit.

When we were in the same position, DP already had a Australian tax # (from a few years earlier) and paid all his tax there.
We had a Australian bank a/c with eftpos card and just used it here to draw money when needed.
For us doing it like that was easier.

It depends on the country, and whether NZ has a double-tax agreement with that country. I am pretty sure that we would have one with Australia (although I'm not an accountant, so as the others have said, it might pay to call the IRD and check).

The way that the double tax agreements work is that the two countries agree that you pay tax in each country only on the amount earned in that country, so that you don't end up paying it twice.

If there isn't a double tax agreement (I worked in the middle east for a while, and there wasn't one with that country), then if you are still deemed to be "domiciled" in NZ, then you have to pay NZ tax on your worldwide income.

But as I say, I am 99% sure that we ought to have a double tax agreement with Aussie.

If your house is here then you won't have to pay capital gains tax. New Zealand doesn't have a capital gains tax but if you were to buy a house in Australia and then sell it then you would be subject to capital gains tax.

I am an accountant and while I would still check this out with the IRD I think that your DH's income still needs to be returned in a NZ tax return but you can use the tax he has paid on that income as a credit against it in his return - so in effect he will only be taxed once on that income. Hope that makes sense. Basically you have to return it here coz he is still a NZ resident but only pay one lot of tax. However - if he has paid tax at a lower rate in Australia than the rate he would have otherwise paid here in NZ then you may have extra to pay.

Residency looks at a bunch of things other than where you are living at the time. If you have a house and family in NZ and come back here regularly then you are usually deemed to be still a resident of NZ. Which means that you have to return your "world wide income" in your tax return. But if you have earnt income and paid tax in countries we have a DTA (double tax agreement with) then you get to use those credits against that income in your NZ return. So effectively only pay tax once.

PM me if you have any other questions.