Ken

It makes a difference in Australia as the payment isn't necessarily tax free. It depends on the contents of your Super fund i.e. whether or not there is an untaxed element and whether or not the total balance exceeds the low rate cap (currently $225,000). Only if the total is less than $225,000 and it is entirely composed of taxed elements will there be no tax to pay on a withdrawal while under 60 - and yes that's even though you've reached preservation age.

I don't think private schools have any more of a stigma in the UK. The reason more parents send their kids to private schools in Australia is because they are more affordable (due to government subsidies voted through by all the old boys in Parliament) than in the UK. It's not because in the UK lots of parents who can afford them are choosing not to send their children.

Yes, Australian councils do seem to have managed to concentrate on providing services rather than cutting bills as the route to re-election, which is a very good thing.

"a society that continues to vote in right-wing disaster capitalists who are hell-bent on dismantling anything that does not enrich them" is a pretty accurate description of Australia. I don't think the class system is any worse in the UK. A survey in 2019 showed that two-thirds of Boris Johnson's cabinet went to private schools. I can't find figures for ScoMo's cabinet but 82% of Tony Abbot's 2013 cabinet attended private schools.

Plenty of stories running over here to say that healthcare workers have been so overworked in the pandemic that they'll quit as soon as it's over. Time will tell - but of course the silver lining for people coming here from the NHS is that if the great resignation does take place there will be vacancies for them!

I signed up with them, but they failed at the first hurdle. I'm not sure what I was asking of them now but I remember their advice was "look it up on the internet". So I did that with everything and found I didn't need their help.

Doesn't matter if the spouse has PR or not: "Spouses of Australian citizens, New Zealand citizens and holders of Australian permanent visas do not require foreign investment approval when purchasing residential real estate as joint tenants" firb.gov.au Hence the answer to how to structure the property purchase is (almost certainly) as joint tenants as most of the other alternatives would require FIRB approval. However as Marisawright has pointed out the tax treatment is not about citizenship it's about residency. As a non-resident the tax rates on Australian property are quite onerous.

The TFN is a 9 digit number. If what you think is a work serial number has 9 digits then it might be your TFN but anything else it won't be. ATO contact details can be found at: Contact us | Australian Taxation Office (ato.gov.au). The overseas enquiries phone number is +61 2 6216 1111 - 8:00am to 5:00pm (AEDT) Monday to Friday.

You can't opt out of paying for advertising. Any product you buy that is advertised has the cost of that advertising included in the price that you pay and that applies whether you have seen the advert or not. Furthermore if you do watch commercial television the subliminal effect of advertising may lead you to make poor choices which lead you to spend more money than you would have otherwise. The ABC isn't free but it is free-to-air because you've already paid for it whether you wanted to or not.

Not free-to-air because it's paid for by taxation? You might as well say the commercial channels aren't free-to-air because they're paid for by advertising!

The ABC is free to air and doesn't show any more ads than the BBC. No TV licence because the government funding has always come from general taxation rather than a specific tax. Of the subscription channels I'm finding Disney+ to be the best value. Obviously we got it because my son wanted it but there's loads more than just kids programs on it.

The date they originally announced was the 17th but they are expecting to meet the vaccination target sooner so (before Omicron) were saying it might open on the 10th (not sure why it needs to be a Friday). I certainly hope it does open on the 17th as we're planning to cross the border on the 20th and if we can't with our house already sold we'll effectively become homeless!

The border is schedule to open on either 10th or 17th December depending on when Queensland reaches the 80% vaccination threshold.

Anyone see the movie "The Dish"? I'm thinking the role of the Security Guard might be an accurate portrait of Bulya's NASA days.

Yes that whole thing about having to get an appointment between 9 to 5 Monday to Friday (I think my surgery also did one evening a week and Saturday mornings but you had to book well in advance) is something that really bugged me about the NHS.

I didn't arrive here until I was 46 so I definitely don't think that's old - although I'm departing the Werribee area (we've just sold our house in Manor Lakes) and moving to the Gold Coast. I'm 55 now and still not too old for another new start!

As Alan has pointed out if the contracts were exchanged before you moved (assuming there were nothing unusual in your contract) then it's outside the scope of Australian tax and so you don't have a CGT event to report on your tax return.

Provided you used a registered agent the place to complain to is Mara: make a complaint about a registered agent (mara.gov.au) If you didn't use a registered agent then you should expect them to behave badly.

While Britain was in the EU they weren't allowed to discriminate against anyone living elsewhere in the EU, they had to be treated the same as anyone living in the UK. Now they can be treated the same as anyone living in Australia!

Yes - but fioz's point 4 seems to be trying to claim that ASX-listed Australian domiciled ETFs are not taxable Australian property (and not foreign property either judging from the fact that they are claimed not to be target foreign income either). Unfortunately I don't know the exact nature of these ETFs so perhaps in some instances they are judged to be foreign property despite being Australian domiciled - but that's not going to make them completely undeclared because they will then become foreign target income.

I think you're getting tied up with the semantics but the interpretation is correct. As an individual you will fit into one of the three categories but that doesn't mean that Temporary Residents are not Australian resident for tax purpose - it's just that it's temporary. Point 4 though sounds like Australian sourced income to me so I'm not clear on what your basis is for not declaring it.

No, transferring money from one bank account to another bank account is not income. It doesn't make any difference if the transfer is between savings account and your transaction account at the same bank or between banks in different countries - you haven't earned anything or otherwise made a profit from doing so. There's a capital gain when you sold your house but presumably that was before you became resident in Australia? Even if it wasn't there's a main residence exemption (although you should still tick the box to say a CGT event occurred if it was while you were resident in Australia).

You can open a multicurrency account with Wise online. Comes complete with a debit card and you can have an Australian sort code and account number (as well as a British one) so you can use it for all normal banking tranactions until you get a regular account set up.

What is socialist about multimillionaires only having to pay 90,000 while people with no more than 90,000 to their name have to pay the same? Clearly Boris is thinking ahead about the cost of looking after his Dad and doesn't want his inheritance to be spent on it.

If you are going to be self-employed and "chucking" in to Super do bear in mind that there are different ways of making voluntary contributions. If you just pay in, the money isn't taxed when you pay it it but you'll have had to pay tax on the income you have needed to earn to chuck it in. You can however tell your Super fund that you are going to claim it as a tax deduction. That reduces the amount of tax you have to pay but your Super fund will then have to deduct 15%* from your contribution for tax but that's almost certainly less than the value of tax deduction you'll get. *Can be higher for those on high incomes and thresholds apply to how much you can contribute per year and in total.