Tarby777

Hi all, Just wondering whether anyone is being brave and ploughing any money into Aussie shares at the moment. I'm keen to start a portfolio but the advice I've had from friends who really seem to know their onions is to hang on and keep it in high-yield cash accounts until the dust settles from the latest round of wobbles. What are you guys doing? Cheers, Tarby

It's worth mentioning that tax returns are mandatory here, and seen as a great way to get some money BACK at tax time... there are plenty of things you can claim, but legislation is complex and it's worth engaging a professional to help you make the best of it. You might expect to pay $100-500 depending on the complexity of your affairs and bizarrely, accountancy fees are tax-deductible, so you can claim last year's fees on this year's return. It's also worth mentioning that the ATO are absolute nazis! They tend to pay tax refunds out without checking particularly closely (if at all) AT THE TIME but they're extremely vigilant in the long run and they can audit your affairs going back 5 years, hence the need to keep all important receipts, calculations, bank statements etc. Involving an accountant can stop you making expensive mistakes or missing out on perfectly legal entitlements that you're not aware of. Finally, as you're not working yet, I hope all your savings are in your name for the tax breaks...

One aspect of moving money over to Oz where you *are* charged is pensions. If you transfer a pension and have been in Oz longer than 6 months, you pay tax on any fund growth that has occurred since the date you emigrated. You also have to be very careful to ensure that the receiving fund is what HMRC refer to as a QROPS, otherwise you get hammered for tax on the transfer value, not just the growth component. It's a massive bind IMO (I'm sorting mine out at we speak, two years down the line...) but as another poster already said, all your worldwide income is taxable in Australia and that includes savings interest, rental income, the regular income and/or lump sum that you receive from a pension etc, so there's a good argument (depending on your personal situation) to get everything you've got over here pretty sharpish if you know you're going to stay. Sorry for changing subject! Rant over. I will now return to sorting my pensions out. That is all

I used HiFX to move my money over to Oz. It's equally easy to send some back the other way if you ever need to. All transfers are free. I drip-fed it over more than a year, hoping that the exchange rates would move in my favour (they didn't). With hindsight, I wish I'd moved it all in one go and put it straight into one of the high interest, instant access online accounts. With another batch of hindsight, I wish I'd done like you and sold my UK property... my rental income from it is taxable to the ATO at 37% You might not be able to open one of those high-interest accounts until you get here (although you *may* be... RAMS is part of Westpac, and Ubank is part of NAB, after all - and you can open accounts with them while still in the UK). It's worth checking out www.ratecity.com.au to see what the best accounts are... having your interest clock up at nearly 6% makes a heck of a difference...

Mrs Tarby777 was fine till we got here but had panic attacks in the first week and had serious homesickness issues which she is only now starting to get over, despite us settling straight into a good church and getting to know lots of good folks. She has an infinitely better lifestyle here, with more to do and more friends than she ever had in England, but she still wishes we had never come, and would happily go back to England tomorrow! Personally, I never looked back... I suppose I rationalised it all in a blokey way, reminding myself that England's in the toilet, overcrowded, the weather is rubbish, and so on. I guess the thing is, you need to remind yourself that nothing has to be for ever and you can always come back to England if it doesn't work out for you over here. At least you will have given it a go, and in old age you won't have all the "what if?" regrets that go with never having done something you wanted to do.

Mate, that commute will drive you crazy after a while. The only way to do it from out there IMO would be the Manly ferry. If you're thinking of driving or even getting a bus, you've got Spit Bridge and Military Road (the slowest road in all of Sydney) to contend with twice a day. You really need to think long and hard about it. The lower north shore might be a better bet for you than the northern beaches. I ended up in Kirribilli, which is very handy for the CBD and I can get to Palm Beach in about 45 minutes. Plenty of other nice beaches (Balmoral, Clontarf...) only 15 mins away.

Virgin do a good mobile phone deal: $30 per month with 450 minutes included. Those minutes can be to a foreign landline or mobile... anything at all. We call England on it all the time. IIRC, unused minutes roll over to next month too.

Glad to hear you've got off to a good start guys. Enjoy the "isn't it cheap" thing while it lasts... I think we came out around 4th in the "world's most expensive cities to live" list a couple of weeks ago Meanwhile, back in England... one month's rain in one day. You, on the other hand, get to wander out to a nice coffee shop and perhaps watch the boats bobbing around on the harbour in 20 degrees of winter sunshine. Ain't life grand?! I've been here a couple of years now, on the other side of the bridge from you. Feel free to message me if you get stuck with anything...

Chillax mate. He's a top bloke and I speak from experience as I used him for my ACS/RPL assessment and my 175 visa application. He's thoroughly professional and very capable.

Hi all, Has any heard anything good or bad concerning John Horvath of Gold Vision Financial Services t/a World Pension Transfers in WA? I'm thinking of using him for some QROPS pension transfers, but would sleep easier if I found out that he has some satisfied customers here... TIA Tarby