Plentymech

Our UK based parents love to send us reminders and gifts from there several times a year and always have taken to the post office pre-Covid days. We do not want them going there any longer due to age and that C-19 is still a major problem, has anyone used a door to door service to pickup directly from their houses? I'm aware of the big players like UPS but they seem extortionate compared to the PO when I've done a few estimates. Thanks for any info or suggestions.

Thanks all for sharing your experiences, exactly what I was hoping to hear!

We've started the process of selling our UK home and want to get prepared for the money transfer to Australia. I've searched through a number of older similar posts and there's the mention of the popular choices such as Moneycorp and XE which I've used both for years now but given this is a much larger than normal transfer, does anyone have any good or bad experiences with dealing with banks etc.? I understand as long as whoever handles the transfer are legitimate then it's down to fees (if any) and of course the rate but for some reason I can't explain, I've always thought of MC and XE when moving smaller amounts and been very happy with them so if they are a good go to for house sale fees then more than happy to use them and will be calling them anyway for a chat. Thanks all.

We’re going to be doing exactly this within 18 months. I’d heavily suggest contacting an account skilled in both country’s tax laws such as Alan Collet who’s frequently mentioned on here and will be handling my CGT submission when the time comes.

Thanks all. The account is pretty active as we receive rent in it and have several direct debits. Also, as mentioned its useful for birthdays and those sort of things. I'll call them Monday and change it.

Does anyone know if I change my Santander UK bank account to my Australian address that they will still send things like debit cards out here and is there any negative impact to informing them? I'm not trying to get away with anything but it just seemed simpler to not change it as I still had access to my old UK address even though I have been living here for some years. We went back to the UK last year and popped into the bank to sort out a small issues relating to remote banking and we were quite clear about where we lived and wasn't asked to change it. Reason for asking is I received an email from them asking me to declare my TFN to them. HMC&E know we live her and I reiterate, I'm not trying to avoid anything but one thing I've learnt re taxation is to never lie or mislead but at the same time be as reticent as possible. Our records indicate you may have tax obligations in another country. Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) we need to hold certain information if this is the case. We’ve written to you previously to tell you that you are reportable under one of the regulations above. We’re missing some information and need you to provide your overseas taxpayer identification number. Any help and information gratefully received.

Hi, we're getting ready to sell our house once the mortgage is paid off as we can't afford to cover the mortgage in the UK and the rent here so we need tenants and unless we want to sell it very quickly, which would probably mean lowering the recommended price significantly to achieve this. The whole CGT dual taxation thing was already giving me anxiety so this is good to read. I will be definitely be engaging with an agent as you suggest when the time comes.

I've just gone online to submit a UK self assessment which I have done for the last four years or so. This time I have noticed that there is a section at the start that requires you to declare if you are a tax resident in the UK or Scotland and non UK residents cannot use the online assessment and have to use a 3rd party or submit a paper return. I'm not sure if Ive been missing this up to now or it changed recently. I've never hid from HMR&C that we live and work here in any past correspondence etc. I've created a return (using Taxfiler) and now it appears I have lost my personal allowance and will be charge 20% on my half of the rental income in the UK. I've emailed them to clarify this for me but as time is ticking and I've left it to the last minute I was wondering if anyone has heard of the PA being removed for non UK residents? I'd heard ages back HMR&C wanted to abolish it for people like myself but hadn't heard it come into effect. Thanks for any information. Edit: I just saw a line I'd missed in the return which was "Claiming personal allowances under terms of DTA?" Selected this and it took my PA into account and zero to pay, well in the UK at least.

We only have the one property in the UK and rent here.That's very interesting what you put and I have not heard that before. Especially so as we've just hit the five year mark so it may be prudent to investigate options before we get to six.

Thanks Alan, I believe you're correct and I do not wish to scare anyone.Funds brought into Australia are not automatically taxed (but obviously interest gained on them once here is). I have to declare anything over $10,000 to the ATO but this is just for informational purposes, not taxable and yes I will be seeking advice from you when the time gets closer. Thanks.

I'd be an Australian tax resident as I have lived and worked here for the past five years. I've run through the HMRC non resident CGT calculator so have an example the amount due there if or when we sell up but it's the bringing the remaining funds over only to be lose over a third of my house to the Australian Government. Do they do this with people bringing their hard earned savings over as well? I defiantly need to find a suitable accountant / tax adviser to discuss the matter further.

I'm wondering if I got this correct. Say I made £250,000 profit in the 5 years since renting out my house I lived in for 10 years previously. According to https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-home/let-out-part-of-home I can get private residence relief for the 10 years I lived there plus the last 18 months even though I did not live there. That comes to 76.6% of the profit I can claim private residence relief for so 11.5 years = 76.6% of the time I owned the property. I can claim this relief on 76.6% of £250,000 which means I get relief on £191,500 of the profit leaving £58,500 taxable at the current residential rate of 28% CGT equaling £16.380 being payable on the original £250,000 profit. I'm glad I bumped into this thread as I had no idea. The longer I keep my house rented out in the UK and the higher the profit from it rising, the more CGT I will pay when I eventually come to sell it. That's the UK side sorted if that's right. If I wanted to transfer what was left after paying CGT after the sale of the house, I do not understand how it would be taxable in Australia when I have paid the CGT tax on it in the UK and there is the double taxation agreement in place.

I just did a test for a £50 transfer with both my MoneyCorp and HiFX accounts. Current rate for 1 GBP to AUD = $1.7858. For what it's worth this was the results of the rates offered. MoneyCorp: 1.7228 HiFX: 1.7760

Finally....We are all Australian! We had our ceremony in Dee Why on Monday and were made citizens after nearly a decade from when we first started thinking of the move. The ceremony was such a funny and emotional affair. Ex-PM Tony Abbott was there to boot handing over the certificates. Such a great day!

We all got an email each and it was also updated on the Immi account at the same time. A letter arrived a few days later confirming the same. Kids got their confirmations 2-3 days after their tests, my wife about 2 weeks after that and I brought up the rear about another 3 weeks after that. I was told at one of the interviews a recently introduced 40 point background / security checks are adding a considerable amount of time to some applications.

We've now a date for our citizenship ceremonies, 19th March !! (applied 21st April 2017, Sydney)

Our landlord owns ours and our good friends and next door neighbour’s houses along with shed loads of petrol stations and corporate property. Good for him. We had a 10% increase last year ($1000-$1100 pw) and our neighbours got almost the same but they’ve just been told its going up another $50 pw. He’s tried to to the agent that he’s lived there with his family for 17 years (long story) and the house has had zero improvements in this time. They’ve put in A/C in this time at their expense and been really really good tenants. Anyway, we’re told ours in also going to be increasing later in the year by at least $50 as well. That’ll be a 15% increase in two years. My wages have only increased less than 2% each year so are finding it harder and harder cover the rise. At some point there’s only so much you can cut back on. We can move of course but the standard of properties we’re seeing at the weekends is so depressing. It seems so rare a good one comes up that’ll take a dog also. We’ve been here for 4 years now and just waiting for our citizenship ceremonies now and have been really happy in Sydney. Kids have settled well, we’ve been really lucky and made some very good friends who have helped massively in those dark days where nearly every immigrant finds the path hard going at times but for the first time we’re starting to think can we afford to live here. Moving away to an affordable suburb I know is the only answer but also feels like starting again as we have built up so much in the current community and I don’t think I can start again. Sorry for the moan, I try not to be negative as a rule. Maybe I’m here just to see if anyone is or else has been in the same boat.

We've been casually looking around Sydney, Forestville, Killarney Hts, Frenchs Forest in general just to gauge the market as our lease isn't up till much later in the year but we know the landlord is going to hit us with another increase. What we've seen so far is simply awful and rentals that were worth $700-$750 three years ago are up for $1000-$1100 now and are very very tired with very little apparent upkeep. Last place we viewed had a massive 70s non-working oven complete with smashed door and a new oven alongside it in the kitchen. Agents advised it wasn't going anywhere and a wall mounted A/C unit was broken and was advised we could get it repaired ourselves if we wanted.

Is that 100% correct as I asked my tax agent here a while back about this and he advised it was nothing to do with the ATO. Any income generated by a UK rental property that is above your tax threshold attracts UK tax and is paid to the UK tax office, you don't get double taxed by both countries. Just repeating what I was told.

Kinda of similar to ourselves. We activated our PR visas in 2011 but moved out for good in 2013 when my daughter was 13. The 4 years started from the day we arrived in 2013. We applied for citizenship in April 2017 and did our tests in Nov/Dec 2017. We all had to do separate applications as she was 16 at the time of application. By the time of the tests she was 17 but currently anyone aged 16-17 doesn’t sit the computer test but she did have to engage in a semi-formal discussion / Q&A on her rights and privileges on becoming an Australian citizen which lasted about 5 minutes.

It appears we're finally over the last hurdle now. I'll summarise below in case it's useful / of interest to anyone. Applied for citizenship (family of four, online, Sydney, NSW) - 21st April 2017 Interview and tests for all four of us - 20th-27 Nov 2017 Children approved - First week of Dec 2017 Had to apply, wait for and send off new UK police checks due to time spent back in the UK after activation of first visas. Final approval received - 16th January 2018 Now its the wait for the council to announce the next citizenship ceremony. Busy year ahead for various reasons and trips out of the country so fingers crossed we get one soon and have enough time to get passports immediately after for, as most of you are probably aware, they cancel your existing visas on the day of your ceremony. I kind of wish they had a grace period until you got your new passport (we can perform an emergency application if really needed) especially seeing as we had to pay $1500 for resident return visas which aren't even a year old, ho hum.

Applied on the 21st April, had test late November. Children approved within a week, we had to get new police checks from the UK as neglected to recognise the time spent before we activated the PR visas and moved permanently. Sent the checks off yesterday so now waiting for approval and then the wait for the ceremony.

Hi Samit, My wife and children's proof was on old passports but although we had and took them, they were not required or even looked at. The proof was all online already and was accessed from their new passport details. HTH

My family and I applied for citizenship on 21st April this year and I had my interview and test this morning (Sydney). My children (17 & 20) are up tomorrow for the same but the 17 year old does not have to undertake the test. My wife is scheduled for next Monday. Was OK, no dramas really. I forgot an ID photo and I also overheard someone who had forgot their 1195 (Identity Declaration) form but they were OK about it and allowed them to bring it in within 7 days.

I just posted this in the thread tech123 mentioned above but in case you dont see it I've copied below. I just had my citizenship interview and test this morning in Sydney. My children are up tomorrow and wife next Monday. We applied all together on the 21st April electronically. It was all pretty painless until I realised I forgot my 1195 form signed passport picture but thankfully wasn't a problem and can bring it in tomorrow when the kids are there. They couldn't give me any idea of when I would be finally be approved and when the ceremony would be. HTH