HECS debt when living overseas: what Australians must do

An Australian HELP (formerly HECS) debt does not disappear when you move to Argentina. If you intend to live overseas for at least 183 days in any 12-month period, notify the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) within seven days of departure, then report the income the ATO uses to assess repayments.

The rule also covers Vocational Education and Training Student Loans (VSL) and Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans (AASL). Tax residency is a separate question: becoming a foreign tax resident does not itself cancel your loan or its overseas reporting obligations.

When you must tell the ATO you are leaving

The trigger is your intended overseas stay, not the date an Argentine residence permit is granted. A person planning to spend 183 days or more abroad in any 12 months must update their contact details and lodge an Overseas travel notification within seven days of departing Australia. If you originally planned a shorter stay and remain abroad, the ATO says to notify it within seven days after you reach 183 overseas days in a rolling 12-month period.

That distinction matters if a trial move becomes permanent. Count days across the rolling 12 months rather than assuming an Australian financial year resets the travel clock. Keep an overseas address and contact method current so ATO messages about the loan reach you.

How to lodge the Overseas travel notification in myGov

1. Link the ATO to your myGov account if it is not already linked.
2. Open ATO online services, then select Tax > Manage > Overseas travel notifications.
3. Enter your passport details, destination country, departure date and expected return date. Give your mobile number, international residential and postal addresses, and email contact details.
4. Submit the notification and update those details if your circumstances change while abroad.

The notification is not your annual income report. Filing it when you leave does not replace reporting income later, and keeping your Australian bank account open does not change the travel-notification trigger.

How overseas income reporting and repayments work

Determine your Australian tax residency after moving to Argentina before choosing the annual reporting route. If you remain an Australian tax resident, the ATO says you must lodge an Australian return declaring foreign employment income, including exempt income. A foreign tax resident with a student loan must still deal with the ATO's worldwide-income reporting rules; moving abroad is not an exemption.

For loan purposes, the ATO describes worldwide income as Australian repayment income plus foreign-source income of a nonresident. Where a return is not required, use ATO online services > Tax > Lodgments > Report worldwide income or submit a non-lodgment advice as instructed by the ATO. The usual deadline is 31 October following the Australian income year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June; tax agents may have later dates.

The ATO's overseas instructions give a separate 2025–26 non-lodgment reporting floor of AUD $16,750. It is not the loan repayment threshold. Do not carry that figure into a 2026–27 calculation: the ATO's published 2026–27 repayment threshold is in the table below, while a 2026–27 overseas-specific non-lodgment floor is not stated in the cited instructions. Use the ATO's live overseas-repayments instructions when filing for that year.

What the 2026–27 repayment bands charge

The 2026–27 rates below apply to repayment income in AUD, not simply to your Argentine salary or the balance of the debt. The ATO moved from the older stepped, whole-income percentage method to a marginal method from 2025–26. The published last band still specifies 10% of total repayment income.

At AUD $100,000 of repayment income in 2026–27, the table's second band gives a calculated repayment of AUD $4,570.80: 15% of the AUD $30,472 above AUD $69,528. It does not charge 15% on the first AUD $69,528. That distinction matters if you remember the older system, where crossing a threshold changed the rate applied to all repayment income. The final published band expressly works differently, at 10% of total repayment income from AUD $186,051.

The ATO calculates the compulsory repayment or overseas levy from reported income. Voluntary payments can reduce the balance, but they do not replace an assessed compulsory amount. The loan also continues to be indexed while an unpaid balance remains. If you are weighing an early payment against your moving budget, separate that choice from the legal requirement to notify and report.

Where Argentine tax fits

Reporting income to the ATO for HELP does not settle Argentine tax residency for foreign arrivals. ARCA, Argentina's federal revenue agency, applies its own residence rules, while the ATO uses Australian tests. The Australia–Argentina income-tax treaty concerns income taxation between the countries; it does not forgive an Australian study loan. Keep the loan notice, annual reporting and each country's tax return as separate tasks.