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?

Ulcerative colitis

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.

The certification courses without experience is probably a waste of investment.

Completely agree. I've recruited various IT contractors in my role as a project manager and probably one of the things I'm least interested in is what certification they have. At the end of the day, if you're sitting in front of me I'm going to assume your skills and experience are adequate and it's all much of a muchness when comparing one person with another. You can have as many bits of paper as you like, but as an employer you need to prove to me that you can actually do this job, not sit in a classroom. The main factor I look for in a candidate (assuming their CV is acceptable) is would this person fit in with my team dynamic? The second one would be things like will this person make my life easier or harder? Do they have a personality? Can they express themselves? Do they need a lot of prompting or hand holding? Do I trust them? And most importantly, do they actually look like they want this job? If you can demonstrate that to me you'll shine in an interview. I wouldn't bother to ask you loads of technical questions to try to catch you out as I don't want to recruit someone who's learned something by rote. Perhaps the best answer I've heard in an interview to a technical question was from an Oracle developer who was asked what he'd do in a pretty complex technical scenario. "Dunno", he replied. "I'd go and Google it probably". He got the job.

We used to get the occasional ready meal from Waitrose on a Friday night back in the UK. However, we took one look at the ones in Coles and Woolies and were determined we'd never buy them. I work in the food industry and you'd be surprised what junk goes in to the cheaper end products. All starch, fat and salt.

You can eat cheap.

I buy some of the home brand stuff from Woolworths and most of them are fine.

I like the single homebrand lasagne. Oftne have one for dinner and they are only $2.29.

Much cheaper (and healthier) to make your own though... Ever wondered where those two horses from last year's Melbourne Cup ended up?!?

Also, if you leave the country before October you will have been out of the country for over six months of the UK tax year and will therefore be able to reclaim any tax paid you have paid up until then. Extra dosh!!

That's not correct. You are still liable for tax on your UK earning. However, if you do PAYE you will have withheld tax based on your projected earning from April to April. Therefore, your total earning up to the date of departure would have overpaid your tax bill at that point (as your free pay amount would have been calculated on 12 months not 6 months).

Tax residency in Australia will apply after six months, so the AU tax liability will get backdated to the date of entry (October), which will be no problem as there are no UK earnings beyond this date. So, when she submits her tax return to HMRC in 2016 she a rebate of some of the tax paid. She will also need to declare her overseas earning on the AU tax submission in 2016 and have them credit back the tax paid in the UK.

Tax is an absolute nightmare here in Australia. Completely ridiculous and bureaucratic and best done through a good accountant.

Well obviously I should be taking your advice rather than a well sourced mortgage advisor who is well known to this forum... Obviously his advice was all wrong according to your facts!!!

In all honesty, I have to agree with the other posts on here that you're being unrealistic.

As a new migrant, it's a huge leap of faith to assume you'll get a 95% LTV mortgage. If you are being offered this, what interest rates are you being quoted? Normally, anything under a 20% deposit needs an additional guarantee payment on top of your deposit and you'll pay much higher interest to offset the risk the bank is taking on you.

Unfortunately, $65K is a pretty modest salary here. The average wage may be quoted as something like $50K, but that also includes lots of people who live at home, flat share or have a spouse earning more. You'll be left with under $4K a month after tax and you'll need to stump up at least $1K a month on normal living expenses, $500 on bills, $500 to keep a car on the road, $200 on medical insurance (or pay the same in the Medicare Levy Supplement), so take out your mortgage payment and you're likely already in the red before you've even begun to do anything outside the basics.

It's a bloody expensive place.

Sorry if this is harsh, but better to hear the truth now than six months in to a mortgage you can't afford.

Ouch! That's a lot of money.

The so-called skills shortages are a scam, false, and a rort. There is an over-supply of skills in IT and other sectors in Australia and there are not enough jobs. Why are professionals driving taxis and doing menial work? We migrants are actually disillusioned, especially those who come from Asian and African countries and the Indian subcontinent.

Depends... The thing to remember about IT jobs is there's no real value or money to be earned doing the technical side of things. Anything that can get outsourced and off-shored generally does. This isn't unique to Australia.

Where the money and demand is greater is for people who can manage these outsourced relationships. So things like Project Management, Service Delivery and Business Analysis are better skills to have than, for example programming skills. It's a bit of a cliche, but programmers, developers and support people are ten a penny in places like India. However, getting them to do what the business requires is where the skill comes in - i.e. designing the functional spec rather than coding.

If you've experience as a PM or BA and can translate what the business wants in to something tangible you're definitely in demand, not just here in Australia, but in the UK, US etc.

I've 20 years experience in IT and my best advice is if you don't particularly like IT you'll get on much better in your career than someone who does - i.e. IT is a means to an end for most companies, not the reason they are there. Push yourself more towards the business side and away from licking the wires if you want better job opportunities.

It's not got cold yet though - what do you pay in June-Sept?

I think you are way off to be honest.

Take in to account that all Australian houses are Jerry built and concepts like double glazing and insulation don't occur to people here. As an example, we live in a 4 bed house, there's three of us and we're pretty energy conscious, yet our bills are $180 a month electricity and up to $700 every two months for gas. Even in summer this is $100.

Also, don't assume that because you're looking at a new house in Point Cook it'll be any more energy efficient that a rickety old house. Houses here are not built for the long haul. They put up a McMansion in about 6 months, basically a wooden frame with some panels nailed on to it, badly rendered over; then ten years later the house is falling to pieces, so they rip it down and build another one to the same poor standards.

As an example of the lunacy here, Melbourne can be really cold in winter, yet our house has three inch gaps at the top of all the bathroom and toilet windows. All that covers them is an insect screen. The heat just poured out until we boxed them off. Same with ventilation bricks. We have 12 on a house built circa 1980 with no open flames. Completely unnecessary - all now boxed off.

Don't expect your central heating or water heating to be efficient either. Things like condensation boilers are unknown in Australia. We have a big water tank that sits there sucking up money whether we need the hot water or not. The same with the heating - no-one has radiators, it's all ducted heating, which quickly heats up the house, but does nothing to retain it.

The irony is this is the same country that introduced the carbon tax, yet people here are truly clueless about energy conservation. So, slap on a tax which kills your economy to be green, yet do nothing to actually reduce the energy you consume. Nicely summed up by the soon to be defunct Australian car industry. Why build an energy efficient car, when you can shoe horn a 6 litre V8 in to a Holden Commodore? And they wonder why no-one else in the world wants them!

For reference, our bills in the UK (4 bed semi) were something like 80 pounds a month combined. Then again we had double glazing, loft insulation, doors that actually fit the frames and so on...

Thanks - good post.

A good friend of mine developed severe depression a few years back. He went from outwardly normal to being sectioned under the Mental Health Act in the space of around six months.

The main thing I learnt as a friend was not to judge, not to make light of it (the normal "snap out of it" type ideas people have) and to understand that this was a very serious illness, in the same way heart disease or diabetes is. It's never a case of people feeling sorry for themselves.

Reading some of the posts here reminds me of how daunting this process is. We received PR last November and it was a huge relief. Some general advice for anyone tearing their hair out at the moment:

- "A watched pot never boils" - bit of a cliche, but it's good advice. If you're looking on the IMMI website daily (like we were) you'll drive yourself mad.

- This won't last forever, although the uncertainty makes it feel like it will.

- No amount of pushing will make this happen any faster. It'll take on average 3-6 months to process, so don't have unrealistic expectations

- Be organised though - don't wait to get your documents lodged and medicals done. Police checks take time to process, so put the requests in as soon as you apply.

Best of luck to everyone.

Jodie135 - nothing to worry about, although I know it doesn't feel that way. We did the 186 ENS transition from a 457 last year without a migration agent and it went through in roughly 10 weeks. The frustrating thing for you is not having any updates from IMMI, but what'll happen is you'll get an email completely out of the blue one day either telling you that the CO has been assigned and they are doing the final checking and you need to provide X, Y or Z, or you'll simply be notified that the application is approved. Nothing you can really do in the meantime except sit and wait. As someone said to us at the time "a watched pot never boils" which was a great piece of advice. You'll be fine.

PR granted this morning.

186ENS Transition Scheme

Timeline

Employer Nomination 20/08/13

Visa Application 20/08/13

Visa Grant 06/11/13

Melbourne Office

British Citizen, IT Manager

They know how to get money out of us; thats for sure

Yep - that's something like $12K we've now paid for a family of three. No agent fees, just all visa, medical and police fees.

I love Australia though, so it's worth it!

Just received an email from a case officer! Hooray!!!

 

They are asking for proof of English language skills for my wife. She's originally from Finland, but she lived and worked in the UK from 2000 to 2011 and has worked in Melbourne from 2012 onwards. What is the most appropriate proof here? Don't want to spend any more money on this unless we have to - spent a fortune so far...

 

Anyway - huge relief to hear something!

Or so I thought!!! Turns out IELTS can't be taken after the application has been submitted. I'd not done this when I submitted the application and all therefore seemed lost! After 30 mins of pinging emails back and forth (and feeling like jumping out of the window!!) it transpires that you don't need to prove the English language skills if you pay an extra $4250.

Bit the bullet and paid it, so the rest should be a formality.

What a plonker, eh!!

Just received an email from a case officer! Hooray!!!

They are asking for proof of English language skills for my wife. She's originally from Finland, but she lived and worked in the UK from 2000 to 2011 and has worked in Melbourne from 2012 onwards. What is the most appropriate proof here? Don't want to spend any more money on this unless we have to - spent a fortune so far...

Anyway - huge relief to hear something!

ok guys, so we got the email today, PR granted. that was intense, the CO actually sent us a form 80 to fill last night, we did and this morning got the grant. Phew!!

 

92 days from the visa application. those days felt like eternity but all done now. Goodluck to those of us still waiting.

Congratulations!

The waiting drives you mad doesn't it?! We're 75 days in now and counting.

Quick one - bit of advice please. No case officer yet, but getting all the paperwork in order. My wife has made an error on her Form 80. Is she best to cross this out and submit the corrected form as is, or start a new one from scratch?

My thinking here is that we submit the corrected one and the CO can then ask for a new version if required. Is this a bad idea? Is it better to just bite the bullet and complete a new one now?

No MA or DRC.

 

Nomination and Application lodged on the same day: 30/08/2013

Nomination Approved: 18/09/2013

Visa grant: N/A

 

Don't know if we have a CO assigned. Is there a way to find out?

 

19 days to get the nomination approved is really quick.

Someone please correct me here as I am probably wrong, but wouldn't the CO normally approve the nomination? If so, then I think they would normally deal with the application at the same time, if one has been submitted.

Looks like Perth and Sydney are a lot faster than Melbourne! Best city in Australia, but seems like the slowest immigration office...

10 months - that's absolutely dreadful!

Should be Australia - i.e. where you currently live and work.

You might be jumping the gun on Scottish Independence too - it's still part of the UK at the moment:wink:

60 days for me so far. Set my expectations for Jan/Feb for this.

Hi all ..

A happy day in my life .. !

 

Nice one!! You applied on the same date as me - really quick turnaround time. Let's hope things get moving quickly for everyone else.