Ken

On 26/01/2024 at 08:33, Ferrets said:

To be fair the RBA promised interest rates wouldn’t rise, the government is just responding to different circumstances.

IMHO they should have announced this (or variation of) much earlier in the inflation cycle along with raising corporation tax alongside interest.  If that had happened I think inflation would have been tempered more than just using interest rates as a blunt tool, hurting those at the bottom the most.

At least with this everyone gets something and the general consensus from economists is that it’s a better approach.

Crossing my fingers for the interest rates to start cooling a bit soon

 

Yes, it's all the RBA's fault for not knowing about all the sanctions on Russian Oil that were going to be imposed in February 2022 when they made that promise (or prediction as they would prefer it to be called) at the end of 2020. They're the RBA it's their responsibility to know when wars are going to start. What kind of cheap plastic crystal ball are they using?

Besides the only people complaining about the tax cuts for the lower paid are those who are unaware of the Trickle-Up effect. Unlike the fictional Trickle-Down effect, this one really works. The more money the poorest in society have, the more is the amount of money that flows to the richest in society.

One thing to consider is that if you put your money into Super there are very limited circumstances in which you can access that money before you are old enough, whereas shares can be sold at any time.

Some people might see having their money locked in Super as an advantage as it will stop them from squandering it early. For other people it could be seen as a distinct disadvantage.

On 12/01/2024 at 19:47, Philip said:

Has anyone here claimed this?

I think we are eligible from the date of arrival in Aus as my child and I are citizens (wife is PR).

My main question is: if I claim now for fortnightly payments, do I just lose the payments for the past 10 weeks, or do I get them later on when they do the balancing?

If the former, then it would make more sense to claim a lump sum at the end of this tax year and then maybe fortnightly from July.

 

BTW, is it really that rare for citizens to leave Aus as children and return to live for the first time as adults?? Things like mygov, centrelink ATO etc keep getting errors because I don't fit the box of new immigrant or a resident who has grown up being in the system. Today I spent 3 hours on the phone to centrelink until they realised someone entered one letter of my name incorrectly in 1990, but my parents never even claimed any benefits. Also discovered medicare has been sending a new card to my childhood home every 5 years for the past 25 years - and I learned that UK residents are actually meant to get a medicare card with a different colour, though I never needed the reciprocal healthcare when I visited.

I think you've lost the period that you didn't claim for. Once they start paying it, they will back date it to the date you applied for it, but no further. If you elect for the lump sum at the end of the tax year it still won't go back before you lodged the claim. You need to lodge the claim asap.

I've only known the different coloured Medicare cards to be issued to temporary residents. The Green cards are for citizens and permanent residents. Perhaps a citizen should get a different colour card if they are non-resident and only visiting Australia, but I've never heard of it happening. Certainly, as soon as you started living here again the green Medicare card is the correct one. These days if you leave Australia, Centrelink know about it, so I doubt they would make the mistake of keep sending out cards, but in 1990 not everything was on the system.

On 14/01/2024 at 15:06, Marisawright said:

So, the OP does not have to lodge a tax return if his only income is bank interest and the bank has withheld the 10% tax, right?

The OP did say he is selling off the contents of his old home, but he is not running that as a business, he's just disposing of his belongings.  Surely that wouldn't require him to lodge a tax return?

Yes, normally no need to lodge a tax return if the only income is bank interest on which the bank has withheld the 10% tax. The only exception is if the ATO ask you to lodge a tax return. Curiously the OP says the bank is withholding 47%. That'll probably be because he's given the bank an address in Australia without providing a TFN. If 47% tax is being withheld then a tax return is required (but will result in a tax refund).

If they are all just personal items and not business assets or investments then no, that wouldn't require him to lodge a tax return.

On 11/01/2024 at 08:58, Fazor said:

Thank you for your time in replying. 

I have just updated my bank with My tfn, as they started to apply the fullrate of withholding tax on my bank account.

 I earn interest on my bank account and selling my items still in storage in Australia, my question is if I am not expected to do a tax return as I am a non resident what happens to the funds I earn from both these situations? 

Also was I supposed advise the ato every year that I have been outside of the country? 

Thanks for your 

I have just updated my bank with My tfn, as they started to apply the fullrate of withholding tax on my bank account.

 I earn interest on my bank account and selling my items still in storage in Australia, my question is if I am not expected to do a tax return as I am a non resident what happens to the funds I earn from both these situations? 

Also was I supposed advise the ato every year that I have been outside of the country? 

Thanks for your help 

Hi thank you for your time replying, 

I have just updated my bank with My tfn, as they started to apply the fullrate of withholding they have credited back the money they stopped. 

I am confused as my understanding is that I should have been doing a tax return each year I was away as I was earning interest on my bank account and also have been selling items still in storage in Australia but as a non resident I was not expected to.

Also was I supposed advise the ato every year that I have been outside of the country? 

Thanks for your help

 

If you are a non-resident with Australian income then you are required to lodge a tax return. There is an exemption for interest and royalties on which the 10% withholding tax has been withheld.

On 10/01/2024 at 00:10, Cheery Thistle said:

I’m afraid you really are showing your ignorance with regards to maternity, childcare, parenthood and the impact they have on earnings and the pay gap. This article has some up to date information (if you are at all interested on being enlightened). If not, as you were, they do say ignorance is bliss after all!! 
https://ifs.org.uk/news/women-much-more-likely-men-give-paid-work-or-cut-hours-after-childbirth-even-when-they-earn#:~:text=Even where the mother was,hours after becoming a parent.&text=The different roles played by,development of gender pay gaps.

 

The pay gap is irrelevant to the UK old age pension. It's based on the number of years of contributions not the amount contributed and the years of contributions include years receiving state benefits when there may be zero actual contributions being paid.

49 minutes ago, ramot said:

I mentioned it as general information 

what happens if you live in qld but are visiting another state and need an ambulance, are you still covered?

If you get a bill from another state, you send it to the Queensland government, and they pay it.

Incidentally I always had ambulance cover when living in Victoria. If cost about $23 per quarter for the family. Well worth the peace of mind. You don't want to be wondering "do I really need an ambulance" in an emergency just because of the expense.

1 hour ago, ramot said:

Suggest ambulance cover straight away depending on which state you live in, you can be charged a hefty fee otherwise if needed without cover. 
We have an emergency Dr service locally now, it’s attached to a separate surgery, but separate Drs as it’s walk in and there if you need to see a Dr quickly and your surgery is full. I had to go recently, it Cost about the regular charge, then  had an ultrasound  at the same place and follow up consultation later, both of those were no charge. I don’t know how many of these places exist, but can’t fault my treatment.

The OP is moving to Brisbane. Ambulance cover isn't necessary in Queensland.

17 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

 

But if you rent to a family member do you still qualify for tax relief on your mortgage interest repayments?

If you are making a profit, or can show that even though you are making a loss it is an arms-length price, then yes. But don't forget the requirement that the mortgage was to purchase the property. If you refinance to release money to spend on other things, that interest is not deductible whoever you've rented to. Also, to qualify as an investment property neither you nor your dependents can live there, so your 'family member" can't be a dependent (but if they're living independently and able to pay the rent then logically they couldn't be a dependent). 

21 hours ago, Marisawright said:

So is the Australian taxman.  AFAIK if you're renting to a family member then it doesn't qualify as an investment property

No, it can still qualify, in fact if you are making a profit, I don't see you have any choice about declaring the income, but if you are making a loss you would need to prove the rent you are receiving is an arms-length price.

On 13/12/2023 at 17:27, InnerVoice said:

wouldn't having an Australian spouse or long-term partner and a plan to return to Australia be sufficient ties in itself to obtain an RRV?

Yes, but it would only be a one-year RRV.

On 21/12/2023 at 20:07, Ausvisitor said:

It's to release cash to buy in the UK for family member still over there. Otherwise I'd agree on it makes more sense here

Yes, but you said you only wanted to release about 100K. If you sold the property you'd release the full amount some of which you could use for the deposit on a BTL property in Australia. The interest on the mortgage for the remainder would be fully tax deductible as it would be being used to buy the property. If you were to find a lender to refinance the BTL property in the UK, none of the interest would be tax deductible as the loan is not being used to purchase the property but is for a family member.

In either case you could end up with a mortgage the same size as the amount you are lending to the family member, but the mortgage would be looked at completely differently for tax.

6 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

It's worth bearing in mind that the Australian FCS protects deposits up to $250,000 for account holders at each bank (in the same way the FSCS has a protection limit of £85,000 in the UK), so if you anticipate having a large sum of money on deposit in Australia for an extended period of time, then you might want to consider spreading it across several accounts.

If you are doing this then make sure they really are different banks. There are several banks that are groups trading under more than one name, but the guarantee only covers one $250K for the group regardless of the different names.

44 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

Please can you explain why that's the case? (I'm not disputing, just curious). Wouldn't each country just tax you on the income you generated while you were living/working there? Why would you end up paying more?

No, both countries tax you on your worldwide income which means it includes all of the income you earned while working in the other country while still tax resident in their jurisdiction. You do get to offset all the tax already paid in the other jurisdiction though.

7 hours ago, paulhand said:

Interesting… can you point me to the cases?

Paul Hogan

On 06/12/2023 at 18:13, BendigoBoy said:

You're a citizen in both countries, so you don't need a visa.

Whether your employer has an entity set up to be able to pay you in both countries would be another matter.

That said, if they are happy with you working fully remote, then it could slip under the radar if they don't know where you are as long as the work gets done. Then they just pay you through the one account.

Could be tax implications @Ken would be aware of beyond the standard double taxation treaty maybe?

Hard to see how anyone could ever succeed in being anything other than deemed to be a tax resident of both countries doing that. People have tried to claim they're not resident in either country - but it's always ended in tears and sometimes jail. The double taxation treaty does mean they'll avoid paying double the tax, but still leaves them paying the higher of the two. If they are OK with that and can afford to do it, then it's theoretically possible, especially if they have a job where they can work from home.

There is no "Student visa tax rate". The only visa with a separate tax rate is the Working Holiday Visa, students pay the same tax rates and get the same allowances as everyone else. The annual tax-free threshold is $18,200 ($350 per week), but that is reduced if you are not in Australia for the full tax year (but you still get about 60% of it even if you are only in the country for a month). There's also a low-income tax offset which means you don't pay any tax if your income is below $21,884 in a full year (you'll still get tax withheld if you're weekly paid and you earn more than $350 in any week, but you'll get the tax back at the end of the year).

4 hours ago, Quoll said:

No, they'll know she wasn't resident because she wont have uk grades. 

It doesn't apply in this case, but there are many cases in which UK residents didn't have UK grades. Back in the EU days many parents lived in the UK while their children attended school elsewhere in Europe. The children's residency was determined not by where the children went to school, but upon where their parents lived.

4 hours ago, can1983 said:

That explains the price difference the 1 million and 700k. I was referring to Brisbane itself 

Brookfield is in Brisbane itself. Brisbane isn't like Melbourne or Sydney where only the CBD is in the city and the rest of the Metro area comprises other cities. Brisbane is one big city.

21 hours ago, Simontucks said:

Yes,apparently we only have to show a works contract due to having residency visas. I know it's wasted money but I'm siding toward renting for 6 months having thought about it and not rushing into buying as soon as possible.got to admit,it is a headache though trying to get our heads around it all lol

Finding somewhere to rent is probably going to be a big headache. Rental vacancies are at all-time lows.

On 22/11/2023 at 10:53, Marisawright said:

RAMS had to ask self-employed people to present their books before they could offer a loan. 

I've never understood the banks aversion to lending to the self-employed. Their income can be volatile, but they don't get made redundant or sacked and lose all their income overnight as so often happens with employed people. There is of course an exception with contractors that only have one customer - but they shouldn't really be considered self-employed in the first place.

2 minutes ago, Snowbound said:

Thanks for all your replies. I put this to bed for a while as it was hurting my head! . BUT I do need to get this sorted. I’ve been wondering….. we are considering returning to the UK for a while to spend time with my ageing Mum. Does anyone know, Is it possible/ethical to claim my lump sum and then monthly payments once there, paid into my existing UK account? thanks again. @Andrew from Vista Financial

If you are only intending to return to the UK "for a while" you will most likely not terminate your Australian residency and so will still be taxable in Australia. If however you are going to be spending a few years outside of Australia it might work, but there's a whole host of issues that could either make you still deemed to a resident of Australia or cost you more tax as a non-resident of Australia. You need to look closely at what assets that you'll have in Australia as well as well as what other ties you will have.

14 hours ago, shiner said:

As a matter of interest how would you interpret the attached.

IT 2586 War Pensions.pdf

That's interesting. It would appear that the ATO have accepted that some categories of foreign disability war pensions are exempt from tax. It doesn't change the operation of the DTA though. In fact, they would have to be taxable in Australia for them to be exempted. The exemption is however not part of the DTA so it's entirely up to the UK whether or not they tax Australian disability war pensions received by UK residents.

6 hours ago, Raul Senise said:

The English test is required for the CPA skills assessment. They do not allow exemptions for native English speakers. 

IIRC where an exemption is given it only assumes that as a native English speaker you are at least a 6.5 on the IELTS scale, however for the CPA skills assessment you need to be at least a 7.0 and the only way to prove that is via a test.

On 10/11/2023 at 16:58, shiner said:

Fairy Nuff.

Does the same apply to Disability War Pensions?

Yes. They're not mentioned separately so will still count as a government pension as far as the DTA is concerned.