Marisawright

I don't know whether you're an Australian citizen or not - but if you are, then yes, you can bring your husband and children with you to Australia. You will have to get your citizenship established first, then you'll have to apply for a partner visa for your husband - which will take about a year to get.

I don't think you will ever do that as people will always ping pong for whatever reason But I do think a seperate forum for those going back to Oz who want to chat can do so without getting fired at lol

If you think about it, almost the whole of PomsinOz is designed for people who are moving TO Australia, whether for the first time or later. There is just one small corner that's reserved for people going back to the UK, so maybe it's not surprising if people get annoyed if their little patch gets invaded by people going the other way?

Maybe the main forum should have a section called "For Ping-Pongers"?

He lives between the 2 countries mostly in uk and his rrv is running out he could sponsor me to go out there but I'm not ready to go yet so he needs another rrv to continue coming over here

What he needs is to apply for citizenship, he's an idiot for not applying for it sooner. He doesn't have to give up his British citizenship to get his Aussie citizenship so there's no excuse for not getting it.

Marrying you will not help him get another RRV, in fact it might be damaging because then he has a stronger family tie in the UK than in Australia.

Not quite right. Share dividends are also subject to withholding tax for foreign investors (which includes Australian citizens residing overseas). As for a managed fund, all I can say is - it depends!

I wasn't sure about share dividends so thanks for that. I had a feeling managed funds might be a thorny area!

Hi,

What I meant was suppose you moved back to the UK for a few years without drawing your Super as you were below 60. You then returned to Australia as a tax resident over the age of 60.

You then withdraw a lump sum from your super maybe only a portion or maybe the full balance. Circumstances then force you back to the UK after 2 or three years. would the UK be able to claim an amount of tax on the super lump sum you withdraw whilst in Australia.

Hypothetical at the moment but due to complicated family circumstances not out of the realms of possibility (both my wife and I have elderly parents in need of support one is in Australia one is in the UK). would it be better to just draw the super in the UK and pay the tax on 90%.

I think it would all boil down to what the UK government thinks is your residency status. If, when you moved back to Australia, you sold up your house in the UK and gave every indication of settling in Australia, then I'd say you would be fine. If, on the other hand, you hung on to your UK house, that could be taken to indicate you were only leaving the UK temporarily,, and the UK govt might decide to tax you.

Either way, I can't see the point of withdrawing the sum early and paying the tax now - why accept the worst case scenario when it might all work out to be tax-free later?

You'll get differing opinions here. Personally, I'd say bring everything you can, unless you're either super-rich or your furniture is all cr@p.

I say that because we left all our furniture behind - and even though there's only two of us, and we don't need much, I still found it stressful having to schlep round furniture stores and homewares stores and kitchenware stores etc etc etc. Especially when you're in a new country where you don't even know which shops sell what, or where any of the retail parks are, and you've got so much else to worry about.

Sure, you could just rush round and buy any old furniture to "make do" - but then you're either stuck with second-best, or you waste money because you'll sell or give it away when you finally have time to buy what you really want.

Also, people point out that you've got to wait two or three months for your furniture to arrive - BUT if you're sensible, you'll book into temp accommodation for a month anyway. Then when you buy furniture, you'll often find that big furniture items like lounge suites aren't kept in stock, they have to be ordered and will take 6-8 weeks to arrive - so you 're not much better off.

I'd say, don't bring beds or fridges or cookers, because the sizes are different anyway and you need them in a hurry. Otherwise you can get by till your other furniture arrives by buying an outdoor table and chairs.

Alan's the expert! The way I understand it, if your money is in an Australian bank, then the bank will deduct tax at source and you don't need to do anything.

If the money is sitting in superannuation, then you also don't need to do anything.

However if you are investing in shares or a managed fund, that would be a different story.

So the air con until needs to be a higher temp? We did go through a stage of having *no joke* 23 fans around the house going to try save NOT using the air con.

Christ it was like being in a wind farm.

Yes, definitely. Every single extra degree of cooling costs you dollars. In a Darwin summer I would be setting it at 23 degrees. Think about it - if we were on a summer holiday, most of us would be delighted if it was 23 degrees, and we'd be moaning if it was only 18 or 20 degrees. So why on earth would you want your house to be that cold? Unless you're doing aerobics in the lounge, you don't need it that cold.

You may say your air conditioning isn't getting the house that cold - but that just means it's not working well. Setting it at a lower temperature won't make it work any better. You could look at cleaning or replacing the filters, but if you're renting it may just be a duff air conditioner.

One huge tip - if you've got windows that get morning sun, ALWAYS close the blinds or curtains before you go to bed. You'll be surprised what a difference that makes - the sun blazing in through windows is a major source of heat, that's why office blocks have air conditioning vents that blow across the windows.

Unfortunately because Australian houses have rubbish insulation, you may find a lot of your heat is from the sun beating down on your uninsulated roof.

Ahhh no no we don't. Well the council part anyways. Excuse me for being thick but is there a difference between water rates and water bills?? Because if not, I'm getting swindled somewhere if i don't have to pay water but i get a bill??!! *confused*

Maybe the confusion is because it depends on the state. In Sydney, you didn't pay water bills if you rented a flat, but you did if you rented a house. I think it's the same in NT, but not 100% sure. In some states, tenants don't pay water bills at all, and in other states they don't pay the water rates (i.e. the standing charge) but they do have to pay for the water they use.

There may be differences if you have been away from the UK only a short time and have returned just to do this ...

I'm not sure what you mean by this statement, but the thing with tax is that residency is something that has to be established by actually being resident in the country. So for instance, you couldn't move to the UK, then return to Australia briefly to withdraw your super - because Australia would regard you as a visitor and tax you accordingly. And vice versa.

Well I was looking at Seek today and there were 33 pages of new jobs advertised in the last twenty four hours. Many are specialised but there seems like a lot of low end jobs as well.

33 pages of new jobs just in Perth?

Yes, tank water tastes much better. No doubt about it. I was always surprised at how cold it was too. My friends had two tanks. One was kind of underground and the other on the south side of the house so always in the shade.

I was put off tank water when I lived in Victoria. We were house-sitting in a house that had tank water. While we were there, the tank sprang a leak and had to be drained to fix the hole. They found a rat skeleton at the bottom of the tank!!!

we got our 1st electric bill through. We paid the initial instalment fee of $111 something something 2 weeks after moving in. We moved in ......12th? November and we got our bill today so *counts* 4 months....

 

$565

 

Now not having a electric bill yet, it said we're below the average Darwin resident in consumption which is good but if we're below average, does that mean there are higher bills out there!!!??? Being paid by some other poor bugger???!!!

 

That's higher than I paid when I was in Sydney - however, our electricity here in sunny Southampton costs us about the same as yours - and we didn't turn on our radiators until late January, and we only have them on for three hours a night! So it sounds to me like you're doing pretty well.

A couple of things you could check to save money - what's your air con set at? In summer, it should be set at 21 to 23 degrees. If you set it any lower than that, it's costing you a sh*t load of extra money without making things any more comfortable. A lot of people set it at 18 or 20 degrees and then wonder why their bill is so high! Many people also imagine that setting it really low will make it cool down faster - it doesn't, it makes difference at all.

Also some modern TV's are a big culprit. Just try putting your hand over the top of the TV and see how much heat is coming off it - your air con is having to work harder to get rid of all that extra heat. So don't keep the TV on if you're not watching it, switch on the radio instead. Also switch the TV off completely at night - leaving it on standby is like leaving all the lights in the house on all night.

Southampton may not be the place to choose for several reasons....

We didn't choose it, we started out in Bournemouth which felt like God's waiting room, so we jumped a bit too hastily at the next option (we couldn't extend our temp accommodation any longer). The reason we're still here is that though we've found a few places we like better, they're too expensive (I know, champagne tastes beer income!). I haven't settled into English culture anyway so we are going back to Australia, therefore there was no point moving.

A slight variation on this.....

 

If you're old enough to cash in your super in Australia as a lump sum and then subsequently retire to the UK, would you still pay tax on the lump sum in the UK? Would this be an asset or income?

 

If you're still living in Australia and take your lump sum and pay it into an Australian bank, then it's tax free. The super fund and the Australian tax man don't consider what you're going to do in the future! I guess if you took the lump sum one day and left the country the next, they might look it at - but get it all done a few weeks before, and it's no problem.

Once the money is in the bank, it's just "savings", and you can do anything you like with it. The British government won't tax you for transferring your savings.

Are all the resources unemployed moving into low paid sectors?

 

Once the government freeze on jobs comes to an end (July) 2016 is it going to make a difference?

Not all the "resources unemployed" are going into the low paid sectors, some are going back to their home states to look for work. But certainly, the locals are going back into their old jobs in Perth or whatever they can get (e.g. ThePomQueen posted that on her recent trip to Perth, both her taxi drivers were ex-mining sector).

Of course the end of the government freeze will make a difference to government jobs, BUT that assumes that they allow recruitment - and of course that's only government jobs.

Just noticed you're adding the Adelaide suburbs to the Adelaide thread as stickies. I'm visualising what it will look like eventually - pages and pages of stickies before you can get to the other threads!

Maybe a new category in each state forum for "suburb guides"?

I could do a few for Sydney suburbs, where do we post them?

Agreed, anywhere west of Balmain and youre talking a completely different city...

I would put the border a bit further out - round about Concord - but you're right. It's one reason I'm sitting here in Southampton and not still in Sydney. The Inner West and Eastern Suburbs of Sydney are both special places and great to live in. Once you get beyond those boundaries, you're too far from everything that makes Sydney worthwhile! I got to the point where I realised I couldn't afford to live in that magic circle so I decided I'd rather move elsewhere altogether - finding the right alternative is turning out to be difficult though.

a lot of what you say depends on where you moved from & where you moved to. you lived in sydney i think & that is nothing like where i live. so much depends on where you pick to settle.

You are right, different parts of Australia are very different - but the statements I made are accurate for the whole country, I think. That doesn't mean no one should migrate - for some people, the move will still be worth it. However the scales are evenly balanced now - you can have just as good a life in either Australia or the UK, so you need to have a strong reason for wanting to be in Australia to make all the hassle of migration worthwhile.

Just to be clear, personally I do prefer living in Australia.

So me and my partner, have both decided we would really like to move to WA...we were planning to go out on a 1 year working holiday visa and work the 3 months regional to gain a second year and try to find a sponsor while we are there but wanted to check if anyone has anything other ideas that maybe a little more certain, Any advice would be greatly received. Thanks

I would suggest doing the WHV first anyway, since you're eligible for that visa. To get any other kind of visa, you may need to retrain or do extra study, and that will take time - so why not grab the window you've got to spend a couple of years in Australia. You're young enough that you can pick up on your careers again when you get back.

Thanks for much for your reply. Where did you find this information about super not being taxable by ATO? It would be really handy for me to have? Thanks

I've been told the same thing by a tax adviser, I don't have any documentation though. It is not taxed by the ATO but you will have to declare it as income on your UK tax return and it will be taxed like normal income.

Not western Sydney. Marisa means the inner west. Huge difference. Bit like comparing trendy parts of Glasgow with some of the suburbs that my Glasgow pal described as downtown Soweto.

Exactly what I was going to say.

I am currently in UK living with my Australian wife. We have been together for over 4 years and married for two. I should point out we are in a gay relationship.

 

Now my wife is very home sick so we are planning to move to Oz in 2017 but the visa is getting us very confused. As Australia does not recognise gay marriage yet we are looking at the partner 309/100 visa but we thought we could apply within Australia but it states you must apply outside. Is this the right visa as I want to work in Australia.

.

Yes the de facto is what you want. It basically recognizes civil partnerships of any sex.

You can apply within Australia but you are supposed to apply from outside, and the process is faster if you apply outside. Also, of course, you can go on living your normal life in the UK while you wait for the grant - whereas if you go to Australia on a tourist visa and then apply, you'll be very restricted while you're on a bridging visa.

Compared to Coles & Woolies best, Markies Food is waaaay ahead.

 

Oh and it doesn't shut at 5:30 or on Sundays.

 

Love the £3 brekkie special with tea & toast on these winter Sunday morns after doing our weekly shop.

 

As they say in Scotland, "Ye cannae whack it jimmy" !!

Here in Southampton, all the supermarkets close at 4pm on Sundays. M&S closes at 5 pm.

In Sydney, Coles and Woolworths have been open 24/7 for years.

£3 = $6. In the Inner West of Sydney, I'd get a bacon and egg bap and good coffee for that. And that would be in a nice cafe, not in a faceless supermarket cafe.