Australia Withholding tax rates
Australia Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
The final withholding taxes Australia levies on payments to foreign residents - dividends (with the franked/unfranked split), interest and royalties - each at its domestic statutory rate before any double-tax agreement relief. Imposed under Division 11A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 with the rates declared in the Income Tax (Dividends, Interest and Royalties Withholding Tax) Act 1974; administered by the ATO.
Compare withholding tax rates across all 8 Australasian countries →
| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | — |
| Official source | Income Tax (Dividends, Interest and Royalties Withholding Tax) Act 1974, s 7 - 'The rates of income tax imposed by this Act are: (a) in respect of income to which subsection 128B(4) of the Assessment Act applies--30%; and (b) in respect of income to which subsection (5) of that section applies--10%; and (c) in respect of income to which subsection (5A) of that section applies--30%'. s 128B(4) ITAA 1936 is dividends, (5) is interest, (5A) is royalties. |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. Australia levies three distinct withholding taxes at two different rates, and dividends themselves split in two: the FRANKED part of a dividend (paid out of profits that have borne Australian company tax) bears NO withholding tax at all, while the UNFRANKED part bears 30%. A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. A double-tax agreement can reduce any of them, often substantially (interest commonly to 10%, unfranked dividends to 15%, royalties to 10-15% under Australia's treaties), and whether relief is available depends on the recipient's residence and beneficial ownership. We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, run to thousands of country pairs, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. NO SERIES effective_from IS ASSERTED: the 1974 rates Act and the ATO pages state the rates without giving commencement dates for the current figures, and we do not supply dates from memory. Withholding under Division 11A ITAA 1936 is a FINAL tax on the foreign resident for these payment types.
Get it programmatically
curl https://ausref.dev/v1/au/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://ausref.dev/v1/au/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/au/withholding-taxOther Australia series: Cash Rate Target · Statutory late-payment interest · Goods and Services Tax (GST) · VAT registration threshold · National Minimum Wage · Public Holidays · Consumer Price Index (annual, All groups) · Company Tax Rate · Personal Income Tax Rates (residents) · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Fiji · New Zealand · Papua New Guinea · Samoa · Solomon Islands · all 8