Petkula73

Trying to submit the 2016 UK Self Assessment return and HMRC are as useless as ever... I get the following message: You cannot use this service if in the tax year ending 5 April 2016 you received: multiple chargeable events trust, settlement or estate income and / or you were: non-resident or non-domiciled in the UK a Minister of Religion a Lloyd's Underwriter There is a link which then points to a list of third party software. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-commercial-software-suppliers#individuals Can anyone recommend any of these - ideally a freeware one?

Beautiful beaches and relatively easy to get in to town, but personally I think it's a bit characterless. Depends on what you like and what your budget is really.

Have a look at serviced apartments. We went through Corporate Keys for a year, but there are lots of others.

Horrible last night and we've now had the aircon on for four days straight. Been out this morning to the city centre and it's sweltering still. Roll on the cool change tomorrow!

http://www.carsales.com.au is the de facto place to buy and sell cars in Australia. A bit like Autotrader in the UK, but not as good. Do you know what your budget and requirements for the car are? In other words, are you looking for a top of the range Mercedes or a clapped out old Ford Falcon?

Eek!

Don't expect any bargains in the DFO - it's rubbish. We were shocked when we first came over at why Australians thought they were getting outlet prices when actually they were paying more or less full retail. A proper outlet should be like the ones in the US, or even Bicester or Cheshire Oaks, not the DFO. Hate the place!

EVERYTHING is cheaper in the UK. Trainers are a particular rip off here, as are things like jeans. Buy as much as you can post Xmas in the sales in the UK. As an example, a "bargain" here is when a crappy pair of trainers is something like $130. You can buy the same ones in the UK for £30.

Assume you will want to watch iPlayer etc through the VPN? All of the above are fine and there isn't much between them. We used to use Unotelly before Netflix came here and they were fine.

I was at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race about ten years back and the campsites were full of various Ferraris, Astons, Lambourghinis etc. No-one really gives a toss at Le Mans as when you've seen one Ferrari you've seen them all. So, of all the exotic cars people turned up in, which one had a crowd of people permanently surrounding it drooling? A restored VW Campervan in cream and purple. I have to say it was absolutely wonderful.

Yes, but only for 50% of the population. A sight you'll never see is a woman paying at the pump!

Yarra Valley is highly recommended.

Fair enough, I'm no expert.

If you're anxious go down the serviced apartment route whilst you sort yourself out. We stayed in one from Corporate Keys for a year when we first arrived (paid for by my company). I'm not recommending them as they're much of a muchness, but it'll give you an idea of what is available. Don't search too far in advance as most of the apartments are available now, rather than planning to be vacant for several months. You can stay in somewhere decent for $130 a night, which is much less than a hotel and it's your own space. I know it's not ideal, but you don't want to lie awake at night worrying about getting a long term rental before you've arrived.

Yes, but how can you get excited about building a hotel on the MCG? It's silly.

Spot on. I ended up buying a cheapo, made in China chicken skin pair of work shoes here when we first arrived for $90. That was at the time we had $1.40 to the pound. When I went back to the UK, I bought some handmade, made in England shoes for $200 a pair at the exchange rate of the day. I still have them and they look brand new. The cheap Chinese crap lasted about a month. A few pointers on things you might want to bring: 1. Medicines, plaster, TCP etc - all an absolute rip off here. I nearly had a fit when a bottle of children's cough medicine cost me $18! 2. Expensive shampoos/conditioners. The ones my wife likes are nearly $20 here, but they were three for a tenner in Waitrose. 3. Hi-Fi and home cinema equipment - rubbish choice here and expensive 4. Books (such as cookbooks) - absolute rip off in Australia However, the thing we regret not bringing most is a car. All cars are expensive in Australia, but European cars are stupidly expensive. We could have spent ten grand on a used Merc, BMW or Audi in the UK, shipped it and doubled out money. Things are a little bit different now the exchange rate is higher, but back in 2011 we could have ended up driving round in a high end German car for the price of some crappy Holden here in Melbourne. Oh well...

Make sure you time this to maximise your tax free allowances in both countries. You have an 11K tax free limit in the UK and $18,200 in Australia, so in total that's something like $42500 of income that you can keep without needing to pay tax. What you'll be able to most likely do is claim back the overpaid tax in the UK (as your tax code will be wrong if you don't complete the full year) and likewise in Australia if you are here for only a few months before the end of the financial year. When we came over in 2011 I continued to be paid in the UK for 14 months, then switched to be being paid here and consequently the free pay limits worked beautifully for me. I ended up paying something daft like 12% net tax for 2 years until it all caught up.

We had a similar situation to you in 2013. My company originally agreed to sponsor (i.e. fully fund) our PR application when I signed a full time Australian contract in 2012 (I was still on my UK contract prior to this. Due to a management change and cost cutting, when we became eligible, HR reneged on the offer and claimed they had in fact said they would only nominate me for PR, and not fund it. They were totally clueless and were not even aware that they even if they nominated me, they still had to pay for the nomination, which was something like $500 in addition to the cost of the visa. To cut a long story short, we decided that HR were not going to be either helpful or proactive, so I told them I would take care of everything, then completed (and paid) the nomination on their behalf. Therefore, all they had to do was rubber stamp a couple of forms and confirm that I worked there and was in a permanent role. I also completed my own 186 application, which was relatively straight forward, and we got our PR granted about 10 weeks later, which was pretty quick. My advice would be: 1. Ask your HR department to clarify what "nominate" vs "sponsorship" means. I'm guessing it's the same as me, i.e. they will sign the nomination form, but not pay for it. 2. You can certainly ask to see the HR policy on this as it shouldn't be sensitive or confidential. If they won't provide a copy it's most likely because they don't actually have one, or it's out of date. I'd escalate that to your manager, head of department etc if possible. 3. In the meantime, you can start to research a PR application outside your employer. All in all our PR cost us in excess of $12K, which was an absolute rip off. The most ridiculous part was we didn't submit an IELTS language test for my wife as we thought given she wasn't even the applicant, had lived and worked in the UK for 11 years and was employed in Australia that it was pretty obvious her English was at the required level (which is not exactly very high). 10 weeks later we had a call from IMMI telling us that the PR was approved, pending the IELTS test. Fine we said, she can go and do one next week, but oh no, Australian bureaucracy kicked in with a vengeance. You cannot sit the IELTS once your application has been submitted, therefore our options were either take the test, then resubmit the whole application and go to the back of the queue, or pay $4200 to IMMI to exempt her from taking the test! What a complete scam! So basically, you need to be able to speak English to get PR, unless you cough up $4200 and then it doesn't matter! We paid as the thoughts of going to the back to the queue were too much to contend with.

Thanks everyone for the incredible amount of feedback. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with the response!! We'll take the comments about rescue dogs on board. Makes sense to me that saving a dog is better than breeding a new one.

Hi - can anyone offer an opinion on this? We're a family of three and thinking of getting a dog next Feb/March. I had a dog when I was growing up, so know what's involved, but its the first pet for my wife and daughter (who is 8). My wife works from home, so the dog won't be on it's own for long spells and we live close to the beach and parks for exercise. We also have an enclosed back yard. A few requirements we have: - needs to be low allergy (we don't suffer normally, but have both had a reaction to a friends Jack Russell) - moderate amount of exercise would be ideal. Don't want a lump that lies on the floor all day, or something that needs to be walked for 6 hours a day - medium size - don't like toy dogs or ones the size of horse - low drooling - good with kids - easy going nature - low maintenance We've been told that various "oodles" make good pets, but I'm sceptical about puppy farms and the risks of congenital illnesses huge vet bills from producing too many dogs too quickly. We've read lots of reports about things like Labradoodles having hip dysplagia and other genetic problems. We've thought about rescue dogs too, but I'm not entirely convinced we wouldn't end up with a basket case of a dog. Don't want to go through the trauma of having to return one that can't settle. I quite like the idea of a Standard Poodle, although I really hate the stupid show dog clip that you often see on them. If they're clipped short all over they're nice looking dogs and seem to tick a lot of boxes for us. However, the 4-6 week clippings are a turn off, as is the brushing. So, any suggestions? Thanks

Easy one. Just write Melbourne on a piece of paper and you have your answer.

Not that I condone it, but injury lawyers and ambulance chasers fit nicely with insurance companies... Either way, you need to be extremely careful about access to confidential data.

Capital Gains Tax in the UK is pretty complicated. If you reside overseas and sell a house that you've bought as an investment you're liable for full CGT in the UK. If you have previously lived there, and subsequently let it out you're also liable for CGT, minus Private Residence Relief (i.e. relief because you lived there) and Private Letting Relief (you lived there, but subsequently rented it out - i.e. not a buy to let). Whichever of these reliefs is lowest will be applied to both (i.e. they'll be for the same amount). So whatever is lowest from either: 1. The gain you've made since 2015 * (18/the number of months you've not lived there) - e.g. 100,000*(18/50) = 36,000 of relief 2. Or 40,000 if calculation 1 is higher than 40K So a 100,000 gain after 50 months would provide you with a net 28,000 capital gain which would be taxable at 18% once your personal allowance(s) of 11,000 have been deducted. In this example, if two people owned it, the net CGT would be 28000/2 = 14000 gain per person. Minus 11,000 personal allowance = 3000 taxable amount. 3000 * 0.18 = 540 of tax due per person. The longer you keep the property, the lower your allowance will be and the higher your tax liability (provided the gain goes up or remains the same). Selling in 2025 with a 100,000 gain would leave you with a 24,000 taxable amount and a 4300 tax bill per person. However, if you're a temporary resident here I'm pretty sure you're exempt from all of this as the house in the UK would still be classed as your primary residence. In this case you'd have the same rules as a normal British taxpayer applied to you - i.e. no CGT on privately owned homes that are not buy to lets. And to add a bit more complication, if you become a permanent resident and sell after six years you'll be liable for Australian CGT on your overseas primary residence property, meaning you would need to let HMRC take their cut first, then declare the overseas tax you'd paid on your ATO return to avoid being taxed twice. Complicated. And I'll be honest here that I am probably incorrect on loads of this, so as per my comment above, always use a properly qualified accountant to do your tax returns - life's too short to do them yourself for the sake of a few hundred dollars...

A 489 does not give you the right to settle permanently in Australia, ergo you're a temporary resident and as such you do not need to declare your overseas earnings. As such you only need to declare rent to HMRC in the UK and you'll not be liable for Capital Gains tax here when you come to sell. If you switch to a PR visa later, you then become liable for your overseas income and will be expected to declare the full amount you receive in rent to the ATO. Likewise, if you sell up in the UK and you've been here for more than six years on a PR (and the property in the UK is classed as your primary property - i.e. you don't own and live in a house here) you'll need to declare the CGT on the increase of the house value from the time you were granted PR. My advice for all of the above is use a tax agent. Australian bureaucracy is legendary and you won't believe how complicate they can make something quite straightforward. A good tax agent will know exactly what you can deduct from your annual submission and can save you thousands and thousands. Lots of good ones out there, but I'll give a shout out to GM Tax who do mine (and lots of other people on here).

My wife had ulcerative colitis in the late 90s and it's horrible. Basically her whole colon was covered in ulcers for about two years, which really impacted on her quality of life. She was pumped up on hydrocortisone too, which bloated her out and added to the general lack of well being. Anyway, to cut a long story short, she was living in Finland at the time and the Finns have a very aggressive surgical policy in dealing with it, so in 1999 she had the whole of her colon removed and an internal pouch created from her small intestine. Sounds extremely dramatic, and it was at the time, but after around three months she was more or less back to normal and fifteen years on she's never looked back. Other than a scar there's really no sign that she had previously been that ill.