Living – Bills, Tax & cost of living

We’re serious about emigrating to OZ and so I guess it’s sensible to ask the following of anyone who has had experience of recently moving over

Financially speaking, are you better off, worse off or about the same. (If either of the first two can you estimate to what degree)

I hasten to add that we’re not motivated by having extra bundles in the pocket but we do need to get an idea of the financial consequences.

Are there any bills/taxes/etc that we should be warned about?

Hi Desperate Homer

I have been offered a position as of Monday morning so seriously number crunching and delving into finances. From the numbers that I am coming up with I beleive I will be accepting the offer of sponsorship and travelling out as a young family with my wife and 2 children 8 and 3 on a 457 visa. Our joint income in the UK is approx 55k prior to tax and to be honest childcare is crippling us, so much so my wife is considering giving up her job. I beleive that if we move out to Queensland we will be in a very similar situation financially. We will have to rent out our property in the Uk as we bought before the crash and unfortunately will not profit on the rent we charge as anything we make over and above the mortgage fee we will bank for emergency repairs etc, so my calcs include Property Insurance in the UK also. I have been offered employment in Australia around the 85K mark and calculations are based on my wife staying at home with our youngest. I am not sure on visa type you will be travelling on and where you will be travelling from & to (assuming from UK) as this will seriously affect your numbers. For example certain states charge school fees on a 457 visa where as some do not, also worth noting is that the UK and some other european cities have a reciprocal agreement relating to Health Care however I beleive that you may need some sort of cover over there. Its also worth noting that when you rent you do not need to pay certain council rates as this is the leasers responsility except for a possible water usage fee dependent on where you will be settling. You will of course have to pay electricity, gas, phone charges and there may be hidden costs such as connection charges for these services. Its worth noting that part of my package includes a company car, phone and 6 months accommodation paid. You may want to check out income tax on the Australian tax office web site, I will be asking my potential employers advice on this as I have been slighlty puzzled with regards to the whole resident and foreign resident section (only due to reading various info on the 457 visa and residential status). You may even have that answer for me as there seems to be crca 5k of a difference in take home which to be honest is my deciding factor. Please see my monthly breakdown below that may assist and note that the numbers stated are based on my family and my findings within Queensland, they may vary slighlty depending on lifestyles and areas however I do not beleive that they are a million miles away:

Rent 2400

council rates 140 not applicable if renting

water 110 may be less if renting

gas 60

electricity 140

telephone 100

shopping 1000

contents insurance 40 for rented property and buildings insurance 70 if purchasing

cable tv/internet 130

clothing 300

school expense 150 (lunch, snacks and excursions)

life insurance 50 (UK policy)

Health Care 200

Entertainment/sports recreation 400

Car Insurance 40

Road Tax 45s

Servicing 45

Petrol/Diesel unknown

I hope this helps and appologise for the spelling/grammar as im in a hurry but wanted to lend my opinion, should you have any info that could assist me then I would love to hear back from you.

The Bilsland Family

Very informative but sorry to say so the post from DesperateHomer is from 2007. I am not sure he/she is still reading the forum.:wubclub:

Closing this thread as it's very old and there are more recent threads on cost of living.

@Bilslandfamily, on a 457, you will generally be treated as a resident for tax purposes. (There are exceptions, but if you're properly moving over here, they won't apply to you)