Tarby777

No probs mate, you're welcome. The commute to Sydney is just about do-able in a car, but possibly not on the train.... I tried it for a week and it was taking a total of 2h20m each way on two trains and a bus, and that was if they all lined up nicely! Most folks seem to move to the coast a) because they can't stand the commute anymore or b) for lifestyle reasons. Plenty of good golf courses for you on the coast, and you'd be close to the Hunter Valley too

Don't know about bar work specifically mate, but Terrigal - and the whole of the Central Coast to be honest - is very, very quiet compared to Sydney. Yes, it's only an hour and a bit north of Sydney, but it's worlds apart. The only town of any size is Gosford, and it's nothing to write home about. Terrigal is one of the nicer places on the Coast, but it's tiny. Think of a little holiday town in North Wales... somewhere like Abersoch. It's probably not even that big! Sydney would have infinitely more job options for you, but the cost of living is a lot higher. I live in Sydney and work in Gosford, so I'm always weighing up the pros and cons, checking out my options etc and I saw a couple of weeks ago that for what we pay in rental for our two bed unit, we could get a 4 bedroom detached house with a pool on the Central Coast. I don't mean to be a prophet of doom, but please do be aware that you're going to a quiet little backwater! It could well be difficult to find something. HTH Tarby

Sorry folks - the more you explain, the more confused I get. One person seems to be saying that only the profit is taxable and the ATO can't put me into a situation where it is costing me more money to rent it out than if I wasn't renting it at all, while the other seems to be saying that - in my situation - only agent commission and mortgage interest are deductible, and tax has to be paid on the rest. If the latter is true, then the sums go like this: gross income: $100 deductible expenses: $23 ($15 commission + $8 interest) nett income as seen by ATO: $77 ($100 - $23) tax to pay: $28.50 ($77 x 37%) Therefore my outgoings for the month are $93.50 ($65 mortgage + $28.50 tax), but I only received $85 from the rental agent, so it's costing me money to rent it out. The only way I stay in positive territory is if the mortgage payment comes into play, but it's a repayment mortgage (i.e. not interest-only) with only a couple of years left to go, so nearly the whole payment is reducing the principal each month, and not just the interest. I assume that I can't get into a depreciation schedule because the property is unfurnished. I appear to be royally screwed!

Thanks Eera. I must have the wrong end of the stick... perhaps I'd understand it better if you could run through some figures with me. Assuming a fictional gross rent received of $100 per month, here (proportionally) is how a month typically stacks up for me: rent paid to agent 100 agent commission 15 rent paid to me 85 my mortgage payment 65 interest on my mortgage 8 The $65 is just the regular mortgage payment set by the building society, with no overpayment. My understanding was that the ATO would see the $100 as taxable income and the only things I could offset against it were the $15 agent commission and the $8 interest, meaning that the ATO would tax me on $77 at my marginal rate. Is that not the case? TIA Tarby

Hi folks, If there was no ATO, my rental property would cover its costs There isn't much interest on the mortgage and I don't have too many expenses other than the rental agent's commission, so most of the income from the property is treated as taxable by the ATO. The result of this is that I end up with the property negatively geared, but only because of them. I know that if the property was negatively geared before considering tax, there would be things that I could claim at tax time. How do I stand, given that it's only negatively geared because of the tax that I have to pay on it? TIA Tarby

One really good thing would be to go to the Aussie emigration expos that are held regularly in big cities across the UK. The Aussie government always attends, as do lots of employers and migration agents, and there are lots of good talks to listen to during the day. There's a glossy magazine you can get from W H Smiths and other newsagents all about emigrating to Oz... comes out monthly or quarterly... they're always advertised in there. It's been a couple of years, but I reckon this is the one I went to: http://www.downunderlive.co.uk/ Cheers, Tarby

I'd think through the whole qualifications / apprenticeship thing carefully. Out here, some trades don't particularly recognise or value people's experience / trade qualifications from outside Oz and people - even people in senior positions - frequently find themselves going back to junior roles, taking expensive exams etc to get back to roles equivalent to what they had in the UK. Not meaning to put you off, and it doesn't affect every trade, but it's worth researching before you embark on a long course in the UK. If you can get just enough experience / exams to look attractive to an Aussie employer, I would say that's the way to go. Getting an Aussie employer to sponsor you and train you up worked for my nephew, but that might be easier said than done. If you're not dead set on one particular trade, take a look at the critical skills lists and see what they're really crying out for over here. I came out on a PR visa at 43 and my only regret is not doing it 20 years earlier

Second-hand cars are pretty expensive. I got a 2002 Lancer last year with 130,000k on the clock for $8K and thought I was doing quite well. The price of CTP (green slip) insurance is more or less fixed in NSW, so there's no point in shopping around for it. Mine cost $500-ish. Rego (like your UK tax disc) cost me $250. Then the actual insurance (oh yeah - you need two kinds of car insurance) was in the region of $400 fully comp. I'm mid-40s with full NCB, living close to the CBD. Petrol varies a lot, but is typically in the range $1.20 - $1.50 per litre for E10 (91 Octane unleaded with 10% ethanol). Basic fixed-price servicing can be had for $170 with K-Mart. Unit prices vary a lot with the location but in the nicer areas of Sydney it's not at all unusual for the kind of unit that you describe to be in the $700-900 per week range. You can pay $3000 per week for a really nice one, and a nice 2 bed unit with water views can be nudging $1.5m to buy in a nice area. In a unit, you'll probably only have electricity bills to pay (no water, rates, council tax etc). It varies with the season but I think we pay something like $180 per quarter on average. Plenty of good mobile contracts at around $30 per month. For unlimited ADSL2, check out TPG. Maybe $50-70 per month or thereabouts. Everyone's situation is different but based on what you've described, I would say it's going to be a bit of a squeeze on one wage if that wage isn't in or very close to 6 figures in $AUD. Unless you have LAFHA, of course... that changes everything. You pretty much get all your rent and food covered if you have LAFHA, but don't bank on it being around for very long. HTH Tarby

...and IMO Rebecca, you should continue to pay into the UK state pension yourselves once you move over here. It's simple enough... you just need a forecast from HMRC's future pension centre in Newcastle (which you can organise now), stating how many full years you have already accrued towards a full basic state pension and then you can deal with HMRC to set up a direct debit to get you up to 30 years. I'm not sure what the rules are while you're on your 457 but certainly once you have PR you can pay the cheaper NI conts (class 2, from memory... the same kind that self-employed people pay, anyway). Only something like 10 quid per week. Having arrived a couple of years ago on a PR visa, I got some professional financial advice, and the bloke strongly encouraged me to keep going with the UK state pension...

It's simply all the income and expenditure associated with the property. You claim mgmt fees, repairs, landlord insurance, interest on your mortgage etc. You declare all the rental income too.

They treat it like salary, so 30% 37% etc... whatever your marginal rate is.

G'day folks, With the 0% income tax threshold rising to $18200, I'm keen for the ATO to see the rental income from our UK property as my wife's rather than ours (she doesn't work), and I'm wondering exactly what I'll need to do... get the rent paid into an account that is just in her name? Switch the title deeds for the house in the UK over to her? Get her name on the statements from the estate agent? TIA Tarby

Download yourselves the Entertainment Book app for your smart phones, then you can see exactly where the deals are. Many of them are state-wide.

Don't be too sure of not paying CGT to HMRC on the sale of a UK property if you're in Australia. My understanding (and this came from a phone call to HMRC a couple of weeks ago) is that you won't be liable if: 1) You sell within 3 years of leaving the UK, or 2) You eventually rack up 5 years as an Australian resident You sometimes hear folks say that renting the property in the period after you moved out and before you sold is also a factor in determining liability for CGT when you eventually sell, but HMRC said "not so". As for the rental income, the tax-free allowance in Australia went up from $6000 to $18200 last week (http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?doc=/content/00322113.htm), so if one of you won't be working, you could do worse than to get the property in that person's name... HTH Tarby

Hi all, A couple of questions about UK mortgage interest, rental property income, bank interest etc that I will declare on my Aussie tax return: 1) Given that the amounts were accrued over the whole year, what's the correct exchange rate to use? 2) What's the right approach to take with the different dates on UK/Aussie tax years? I mean, on my Aussie tax return, should I declare the April-March figures or the July-June figures for my UK assets & liabilities? TIA Tarby

Hi all, Given the difference between UK and Aussie interest rates, I was wondering whether anyone has done the sums to find out whether this might be an option: re-mortgaging in the UK, bringing the money over here for a year, then paying off the capital and the interest, and pocketing the difference. Or maybe even just using the monthly interest received to pay it off over a period of time, and never having to send the capital back. I guess you'd want a mortgage with no early repayment penalties and ideally a non-earning partner in Oz to own the savings account (for the tax breaks), but I would have thought it's possible somehow to make a buck or two this way. Has anyone tried it?

I'm with John - you've got to factor in the growth rate for your money over here. Anything you bring over can grow at nearly 6% in an instant access, high-yield cash account, versus what? Maybe 2% in the UK if you're lucky? Yes, the exchange rate sucks and it's painful to think of what you could have got for your sterling 10 years ago, but we are where we are... by and large, the world is absolutely screwed and the fact that the rate used to be "x" counts for nothing as we navigate a unique set of global crises. I'm no economist, but AFAICT those glory days of 3 dollars to the pound are gone, never to return. I'm even looking back fondly at the 1.7 - 1.8 of a couple of years ago, and wondering when we'll see them again. I drip-fed my money over at between 1.5 - 1.8 over a couple of years and now it's over here, I have peace of mind and I'm not getting depressed as the rate slides further in the dollar's favour. I'm also *very* happy at the interest payments every month compared to what my money was getting in England. You can hang on for ever waiting for rates to improve or bring it over now and start reaping the benefits.

If you didn't know... it's something that can only be received through payroll, not claimed retrospectively at tax time, so you do need to be sure that the employer is happy to pay it. The problem some employers have with LAFHA is that an employee's right to it isn't always easy to work out... my understanding, courtesy of a tax accountant, is that your time in the country so far, the kind of visa you're on, whether you still own a property elsewhere and so on determines whether you qualify. What gets employers nervous is that if the ATO decides that the employee doesn't qualify (which will happen upon processing their tax return), it's up to the employer to repay it. As you say, LAFHA isn't part of salary... it's just a case of paying less tax each month. I doubt that an employer could even know what your LAFHA would be, as it's not a fixed amount. Essentially, you get your rent and food for free, up to a certain limit. I have heard that even if you're on a PR visa, you can claim it for two years without the ATO taking too much of an interest. After that, they look much more seriously at your affairs to work out whether you really are still "away from home" or whether Australia is becoming your new home. Think long and hard about how happy you would be without it. Poms who are having to give it up are leaving Sydney left, right and centre at the moment - either to cheaper towns like BrisneyLand, or quitting Oz altogether.

Julie, Regarding pensions, the general rule is that all UK pension income is taxable in Australia if you're a permanent resident. The standard thing is to transfer it over to an Oz superannuation fund under HMRC's QROPS scheme, but as your husband already draws an income from it, that might not be possible. Your best bet is to speak to the ATO as the whole pension/tax thing is quite complex. With a bit of luck, forces pensions will get special treatment... don't know. See also this thread: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/money-finance/154435-uk-assets.html Regards, Tarby

My understanding is that all worldwide income is taxable in Australia if you're a permanent resident; the ATO is a lot more forgiving if you're here on - say - a temporary visa such as a 457. For a permanent resident, UK rental income is treated as extra salary, so (assuming a standard-ish salary) you're likely to pay 30 or 37% tax on it here. So, assuming that you'll get a PR visa: - if you're a couple, make sure the property is in your joint names so you can avoid most/all tax in the UK (the tax-free allowance is c.7000GBP per person in the UK) - rent the property out to a friend or family if possible, keeping it off the radar altogether - If you use an agent, get a decent one and don't get ripped off on commission. I just knocked my agent down from 12.5 to 10% by threatening to take my business elsewhere. - If you use an agent, sign up for HMRC's non-resident landlord scheme so the income can be paid gross to you (the default is to pay you with tax taken off) - Bear in mind that you can't claim your UK mortgage as a cost against which to offset the tax on your rental income. You can however claim interest charges on the mortgage, so if you have an offset mortgage and are generating little or no interest on it, you might want to rethink that. HTH Tarby

Tricky one to answer. I'm earning twice as much in Oz as I was in England but the high cost of living here, coupled with the tax on my UK assets (principally a rental property) mean that my outgoings are far more than they were in the glorious motherland. I'll say one thing for it... you very quickly start taking an interest in minimising your exposure to tax, setting up good investments and so on, because you need to if you want to put some bread on the table! I'd probably have trundled on with little thought for my retirement if I was still in England, whereas now I take every opportunity to save, invest, make use of both our tax allowances for things, and so on. I still haven't got used to paying nearly 4 times as much in rent for a 2-bed unit as I pay for the mortgage on our 3-bed semi back in Blighty. LAFHA was good while it lasted...

Hi all, Does anyone have the fine detail on CGT (to HMRC or the ATO) when, as a British citizen in Australia as a permanent resident, you sell a UK property that you have received rental income from? The way I understood it was that as long as you kept the proceeds from the sale of the house in a UK account for two years, there was no CGT to worry about. However, some HMRC notes for my tax return allude to possible CGT on the sale of UK properties that you have received rental income from. I haven't sold the house yet but am certainly thinking about it. It was our family home for 10 years till we emigrated 2 years ago... does anyone know the formula / rules as they apply to me? TIA Tarby

Mate, you need to trust him, and the people here who have benefited from his services. A big part of getting certification, and then getting a visa, is to pick out the thing from your skillset that is most in demand at the time of application... and that isn't always the obvious one. It might be that there's low demand for your primary skill this month but he's spotted something else on your CV that will get you through quicker, and maybe that means going through the ACS rather than TRA. Putting him down on this forum isn't doing anyone any favours... he'll see you right.

Hi Andy, Just looking to buy and hold for the dividends and the franking credits really... following the advice in Paul Clitheroe's book about spreading a few bucks across several blue-chip outfits such as BHP, Woolies, a big 4 bank etc. I think BHP is at something approaching a 12 month low right now, so it seems pretty tempting but my friends reckon there are more falls to come. It's a toughie... there's not much point in paying over the odds but one of the points in the Clitheroe book is that it's incredibly tough to predict what's going to happen, and he goes for the old adage that it's time in the market that counts rather than market timing. Maybe dollar cost averaging would be the go... Cheers, Tarby

Hornsby might be an option... on a main line into the CBD, about 30-40 minutes out. Come much closer and you'll need to add an extra zero for a 4-bedder