Who keeps track of your working hours?

Question

It is said that as an overseas student u can work only 20 hrs per week on student visa.However who keep track of this once your in the country.And do people work more than 20 hrs?

Answer 1

Centrelink - Australian Tax Office etc.... You really don't want to work any more than 20 hours a week anyhow - you will need the time to complete your studies and assignments!

Answer 2

No one keeps track of how long you officially work during the year. However, when you file your annual taxes, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) gets a record of how many hours you have worked. This is because all your employers pay the ATO taxes on your behalf -- i.e. against your Tax File Number (TFN) -- based on the number of hours you worked for them. That information is then available to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) who check to see if you have worked for more than 20 hours a week on a student visa.

Note: By "officially work" I mean work for which your employer has paid taxes on your behalf. Technically, all your work is supposed to be taxed and all foreign students are required to get a TFN before they start working in Australia. However, some students work "unofficially" by getting paid in cash without them or the employer paying taxes to the ATO. This is illegal but is very hard to monitor (e.g. you tutor someone in math and that person pays you $20 cash for it) so a lot of students do it reasonably regularly. Technically, you should declare this as income in your tax return but a lot of students don't.

Answer 3

They can track it if they really wanted to, but most students can work any amount of hours and nothing happens. The key is staying in school, if you quit then there goes your student visa.