Quote:
Originally Posted by datum1m
Hi Andrew,
I would be interested to know which part of my message you feel is untrue, I am passing on information I was given by a guest speaker at a Thinking Australia (Migration Agent) Seminar, where experts were answering questions put to them about moving to Australia. One couple at the Seminar were looking to rent their house out in the UK rather than sell just in case life down under wasn’t for them and they wanted to move back to the UK after a year or so. They were told by the expert that if they brought money into Australia after living there longer than six months they would have to pay capital gains tax on it. So another couple who were looking to travel out to Australia and get their Visa validated within the twelve month permitted period were concerned that this would trigger the six month period for bringing money into Australia tax free, because they hadn’t put their house on the market and didn’t know how long it would take to sell. So they were told not to worry because the six months didn’t start until they were living in Australia permanently and this would be when they had jobs and paying Australian taxes. I am not looking to mislead anyone, so if you know something different please let me know.
Best Regards
Nigel
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Hello Nigel,
The first thing is the visa that people are entering on. If It's a
PR visa, then if they intend to come to Australia for greater than six months (this is the main test but there are others), then Australian CGT will apply, as well as UK CGT. If they are coming for less than six months, then no issue. Hence, a "recon trip" to Australia is fine and I think this is what your migration agent was talking about at the seminar.
If you don't come in on a
PR visa, then there's no Australian tax implication at all.
If you are an Australian tax resident, then if you have more than A$250k in a bank account overseas, you have an issue. Australia will seek to tax the foreign exchange rate gain. Now, if you sold a house, for instance, and then left he money in a UK account, this issue could occur.
In terms of just transferring money between the two countries, ordinarily there is not an issue from either end.
There's a whole of rules that come into play with cross-border issues and UK migration agents (even if they are an expert in that field) are being negligent by offering complex tax advice, covering two tax jurisdictions.
Cheers, Andrew