Australian, working abroad, paid in US shares: the window that closes when you fly home
You are Australian. You have spent a decade or more at a US-listed company, most of it out of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or Dubai. A good share of your pay arrived as stock, and you have never sold much of it. At some point you intend to go home. Three things are true at once, and almost nobody puts them in the same sentence.
Three facts that are rarely stated together
Your US shares carry a US tax exposure right now, and it has nothing to do with Australia.
While you are a non-resident of Australia, those same shares sit outside Australian capital gains tax.
The day you become an Australian tax resident again, both of those facts change.
That combination creates a window. The window is what the legislation says, and it is open only while you are living abroad.
The first exposure: what the United States takes
Start here, because it applies today and it does not improve by waiting.
The United States taxes the estates of people who are not American on assets it treats as located inside the United States. Shares in a US-incorporated company are US assets. The threshold is USD 60,000. Above it, a graduated scale applies which reaches 40%. An American citizen dying in 2026 is sheltered on USD 15,000,000. You are sheltered on USD 60,000.
Australia is one of the fifteen countries with an estate tax treaty with the United States, which can materially change the outcome. Whether it helps you turns on domicile rather than residence, and those are not the same thing. An Australian who has lived in Singapore for fifteen years, whose children were born there, may find their domicile position is not the simple one their passport suggests.
Who this is written for
Australian citizens working outside Australia for a large US-listed employer, paid partly in stock, ten years or more into the job, who expect to return to Australia at some point. The longer the tenure, the larger the position, and the more the timing matters.
Related guides on this hub
Paid in US Shares and Not American The US Estate Tax Trap and Irish UCITS UCITS vs US ETFs: Structural ComparisonWhat Australia does not take, yet
Under section 855-10 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, a capital gain or loss from a CGT event is disregarded where the taxpayer is a foreign resident just before the event happens, and the asset is not taxable Australian property.
Section 855-15 sets out exactly five categories of taxable Australian property: taxable Australian real property; an indirect Australian real property interest; an asset used in carrying on a business through a permanent establishment in Australia; an option or right to acquire any of those; and an asset covered by a specific election made on ceasing residency.
Shares in a US company appear in none of them.
So while you are genuinely a non-resident of Australia for tax purposes, selling or restructuring your US employer stock does not create an Australian capital gains liability. Those are the operative words of the section, not a reading of them.
What happens the day you move home
Section 855-45 handles the other end. When an individual becomes an Australian tax resident, for each CGT asset held just before that moment, other than taxable Australian property and assets acquired before 20 September 1985, the first element of the cost base becomes the asset market value at that time. The asset is treated as acquired on that day.
Nothing is taxed on arrival, because no CGT event happens. It is a cost base reset.
The practical effect is that growth accrued while you were abroad falls outside Australian capital gains tax permanently. You land with a clean slate valued at the market on the day you become resident.
The five categories of taxable Australian property
Australian real property. Indirect Australian real property interests. Business assets of an Australian permanent establishment. Options over any of those. And assets covered by the election made on ceasing residency. Shares in a foreign company are not in the first four. The fifth is the one that catches people.
The sequence matters more than the decision
Put those two provisions together and the shape of the problem becomes clear. While you are abroad, you can restructure a concentrated holding without an Australian capital gains consequence. Once you are home, you cannot. Every dollar of growth from your arrival date onward is inside the Australian system.
Together they argue for deciding deliberately, and deciding before the flight rather than after it. Neither argues for selling.
The most expensive version of this is the person who intends to sort it out once they have settled back in Sydney or Perth, and discovers that settling back in was itself the event that changed the rules.
Three things that can close the window before you reach it
Any of the following can remove the position described above.
You made an election when you left Australia
Category five of taxable Australian property is the one to watch. When you stopped being an Australian resident, a deemed disposal arose on your non-Australian assets under CGT event I1. You could either pay tax on that deemed disposal or elect to disregard it.
If you elected to disregard it, those specific assets became taxable Australian property and remain caught until you sell them or become resident again. Somebody who made that election is not in the window at all.
This has to be checked against the actual tax return filed in your departure year, rather than your memory of it or your accountant general impression.
Part of your vesting period was worked in Australia
Employee share scheme rules sit separately from capital gains tax. Division 83A can tax the discount on shares acquired under an employee scheme to the extent it is attributable to employment services performed in Australia.
This is assessed tranche by tranche against each vesting period, not as a single yes or no across your whole holding. If any part of a particular grant vesting period was worked while you were physically in Australia, that tranche may carry an Australian source component even though you are non-resident today.
You are not actually a non-resident
Residency is a question of fact, not of passport or visa. The Australian Taxation Office applies its own tests, and living abroad does not settle it by itself. Australians who keep a family home, return frequently, or maintain strong domestic ties have found their non-residency assessed differently from how they assumed.
Everything above rests on being genuinely non-resident at the moment the CGT event happens. That is the first thing to establish, and it is not something a website can establish for you.
The discount clock, and 1 July 2027
Under section 115-25, the twelve month holding period that qualifies a gain for the CGT discount runs from the acquisition date. Because section 855-45 deems your assets acquired on the day you became resident, that clock restarts on arrival. Someone who held shares for ten years abroad and sells within twelve months of landing gets no discount at all on the post-arrival gain.
The discount itself is also going.
Section 115-100 sets the discount percentage. As it now stands, the 50% rate applies to a gain made by an individual from a CGT event happening before 1 July 2027. Where none of the listed paragraphs applies, the discount percentage is 0%. The change was made by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026.
According to published analysis from two Australian law firms, cost base indexation replaces the discount for individuals and trusts from that date, a minimum 30% tax applies to gains accruing from 1 July 2027, gains accruing before it keep the 50% treatment, and assets held across the date are deemed disposed of just before 1 July 2027 with the resulting gain deferred until an actual disposal. Exceptions are expected for new residential dwellings and affordable housing, and complying superannuation funds keep a 33% discount.
The commencement date is in the legislation. The mechanics in the paragraph above come from those firms rather than from the Act, and the detail is still settling.
What this means for anyone planning a return is that there are now two dates, not one. Your residency date determines your cost base. 1 July 2027 determines which regime taxes the growth after it. They are independent of each other, they can fall either way round, and the interaction is exactly the sort of thing that should be modelled by an Australian adviser before a date is chosen rather than after.
The two dates
Your residency date sets your cost base under section 855-45. 1 July 2027 decides whether the growth after it is taxed under the discount or under indexation. Neither date moves the other, and both are worth modelling before either arrives.
An Australian in Kuala Lumpur, USD 780,000 in vested stock
Twelve years with a US-listed employer, intending to return home within a few years.
Today, holding the shares. The US estate tax exposure on that position is approximately USD 247,000, calculated on the graduated federal schedule after the credit available to a non-resident. Australia takes nothing, because she is not resident and the shares are not taxable Australian property.
If she restructures while non-resident. No Australian capital gains liability arises on the disposal, subject to the three qualifiers above. Moving into funds that are not US-situated also removes the US estate exposure.
If she waits until she is home. The disposal happens inside the Australian system. Her cost base is the market value on her residency date, so the growth from her working years is still outside the net, but everything after arrival is inside it, and the discount clock has restarted.
If she made the election when she left Australia. None of the above applies to those assets. They are taxable Australian property and the disposal is assessable.
The difference between the second and fourth of those comes down to what is on a tax return filed years ago.
Get the Australians abroad and US employer stock guide
Covering the residency question, the departure election, employee share scheme source rules, the US estate tax exposure and the two dates that decide the outcome.
What this page does not tell you
This is not Australian tax advice, and Bratu Capital is not licensed to give it. The provisions above are quoted accurately. Applying them to your circumstances requires an Australian adviser, and the residency, election and employee share scheme questions in particular need one.
The structures people use afterwards are deliberately absent from this page. There are wrappers marketed to Australians on the basis of favourable long term treatment. Some of the claims made for them rest on a distinction between Australian issuers and foreign ones which is not settled in the published sources, and the difference matters most to anyone who needs their money back early. Anything sold to you on that basis deserves a written answer from a qualified Australian adviser before you sign, naming the provision relied on.
What selling costs you where you live now is a separate question. Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the UAE each have their own treatment of employment equity, and being outside Australian CGT says nothing about being outside theirs.
What to establish, in order
First, confirm your Australian residency status for tax purposes, properly, for the years that matter.
Second, find your departure year tax return and establish whether the election was made. This single fact determines whether any of the rest applies.
Third, list every grant by type and vesting period, and identify which ones have any Australian working time inside them.
Fourth, establish what a disposal would cost you where you currently live.
Fifth, check your employer dealing rules and blackout windows.
Only then decide what to do. The investment question is the easiest part of this and it is where most people start.
The one document that decides most of it
Your tax return for the year you left Australia. Whether the election under section 104-165 was made determines whether your foreign shares are inside or outside the Australian net today. Everything else is secondary to that single fact.
Common questions from Australians abroad
I am an Australian citizen living in Singapore. Am I automatically a non-resident for Australian tax?
No. Residency is determined by the ATO tests on the facts of your situation, not by citizenship, visa or time abroad alone. It has to be established.
Do I pay Australian capital gains tax if I sell US shares while living overseas?
Under section 855-10 a foreign resident disregards a capital gain where the asset is not taxable Australian property, and shares in a foreign company are not taxable Australian property. The qualifiers on this page apply, particularly the departure election.
What happens to my shares when I move back to Australia?
Under section 855-45 they are treated as acquired on the day you become a resident, at market value on that day. Nothing is taxed at that moment.
Does that mean the growth from my years abroad is never taxed by Australia?
Growth up to your residency date sits outside the Australian capital gains net, because your cost base starts at that day market value. Growth after that date is inside it.
I left Australia years ago. Does that matter now?
It can matter a great deal. If you elected to disregard the deemed disposal when you ceased residency, the assets you held then are treated as taxable Australian property until sold. Check the return.
My employer is American. Does Australia tax my RSUs?
Employee share scheme rules can attribute Australian source to the discount where the vesting period included employment services performed in Australia. It is assessed grant by grant.
Is the 50% CGT discount still available?
Section 115-100 grants the 50% rate to an individual for a CGT event happening before 1 July 2027. Where none of the listed paragraphs applies, the percentage is 0%.
Is the US estate tax really a live issue for me?
Australia has an estate tax treaty with the United States, which can change the outcome, and the answer turns on domicile rather than residence. Without treaty relief the threshold is USD 60,000 and the top rate is 40%.
Should I sell before I go home?
That depends on your residency position, your departure election, your employee share scheme history and what a disposal costs where you live. Anyone who answers that question without those four facts is guessing.
What this means if you are going home eventually
You did not choose to hold a large position in one American company. You were good at your job for a long time at a company that pays in stock, and the position accumulated one vesting date at a time.
It now carries a tax exposure in a country you have never lived in, and it sits inside a timing question about a country you intend to return to. Neither of those is on your employer onboarding checklist.
None of this calls for urgency about markets. The share price will do what it does. What is genuinely time-bound is the residency position, and that changes on a date you choose.
Getting the structure right matters more than getting the selection right. The order you do things in is most of the structure.
Work out where you sit before the date is chosen
If you are Australian, working abroad, and holding vested stock in a US-listed employer, a session covers your residency position, the departure election, your grant history, the US estate exposure and how the two dates interact. You will get a straight answer whether or not you go any further.
Book a Planning SessionSources: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, sections 855-10, 855-15, 855-45, 104-160, 104-165, 115-25 and 115-100, read via the ATO Legal Database. Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, Royal Assent 26 June 2026. US figures: IRS Form 706-NA Instructions and IRS guidance on estate and gift tax. Verified 28 August 2026.
Bratu Capital is an introducer to NEBA (BVI) Ltd. It is not licensed to provide Australian tax advice, and nothing on this page is Australian tax advice. The provisions cited are quoted accurately; their application to any individual depends on facts this page cannot know.