mungbean

Hey Mungbean, thanks for the handy info. I'm headed back myself and just trying to calculate how much I can expect. If my super currently holds $14,500, minus the 38% tax can I expect to receive approximately $8990 back? Or is there any further hidden tax etc? Thank you

Well, your maths is right. As I wrote in the original post, my provider also charged a $75 exit fee. Your mileage may vary.

Why would you want to take it though?

Because you're leaving Australia after being on a temporary visa.

It should be taxed at the same rate as if it was part of your take home salary.

And for Mungbean, it looks like it was.....

As far as I can tell the "withholding tax" is a flat rate, rather than income-related.

Still, I suppose it's a somewhat better deal than for someone living temporarily in the UK and paying National Insurance, who would never get any of that back, ever.

In case it's of use to anyone... I left Australia in March and have just received a refund of some of my Super. You are eligible to claim a refund if you're on a temporary visa and then leave the country.

It's known as "departing Australia superannuation payment" (DASP)

Timeline:

• Left Aus at end of March
  
• Submitted claim for DASP 6 June* online at https://applicant.tr.super.ato.gov.au/applicants/default.aspx?pid=1
  
• Received e-mail request 10 June for a notarised copy of ID to be sent via post
  
• Got copy of passport 'notarised' in a UK post office and posted to Aus on 23 June
  
• Received partial refund** into my still-operational Aus bank account on 11 July.
  

* I was told by my employer in Aus that I should wait a couple of months for my final contributions to the Super fund to go through after leaving the job. My last working day was 1 April, which meant a tiny contribution went through in the April pay run. The Super stuff happens a month in arrears anyway -- or at least it looks that way scanning my online statement on the Super's website.

** You don't get it all back. Even though it's already had some tax deducted when it was paid into the Super, they still took off 38% (!) before the refund. The Super fund itself also deducted a $75 "exit fee".

"Residence" means where your home is, @championak

Flat pack furniture is really only designed to be assembled the once, it's not like camping equipment or other items which are designed to be folded up for storage and opened for occasional use.

In the case of IKEA I would disagree. Have moved house many times and disassembled/re-assembled plenty of furniture -- Billy Bookcase and others included.

Those queues were massive.

Remember that 1-hour wait next time you go through Heathrow!

(Or even better, never again go through Heathrow.)

People are very welcoming here, I found.

When I first arrived, One of my (many) AirBnB hosts told me she was clearing out her kitchen, and put aside a box of pots and pans for me. In the end, another friend did the same and I didn't need them all. Was given fans, bedding, all kinds of stuff.

Where are you looking at staying, Metoo?

The queues to get out were massive and took over an hour to leave the airport.

 

Well, an hour is pretty good for an international airport.

You can get through immigration here super-quick if you have a biometric passport, only to wait 45 mins for your luggage...

Welcome to Sydney!

I am looking at finally getting round to having internet put in the house - at the moment we just have a ipad with a sim card.

 

But any recommendations for which one? We have ewire to the house if that makes any difference and I think we also have a Telstra connection.

 

I was looking at the optus bundle, but the online reviews are terrible.

Where are you, and what do you want to do?

There were people in my company with a hundred days of accrued leave built up, there were programs to force people to take leave, I had to devise formal action plans with some of my team to get balances down, but even then they will say in March "well I will take a week at Christmas", by then of course they have accrued another two weeks. Work life balance bah!

Exactly the same here... right down to the action plans to use up accrued leave. (It shows as a liability on balance sheets apparently - one for the bean counters)

And then there's people with huge amounts of Long Service Leave as well

Does this stuff apply to everyone, regardless of whether you're a primary school teacher, nurse, accountant or whatever?

My mum now has an iPad and knows what facetime is!!!!!!

 

Same here - my mum's 70 and she loves her iPad.

Don't underestimate the power of the Internet to keep you feeling connected.

I would also say go for it. If you don't like it, hit UNDO. Life is too short to sit inside your comfort-zone.

In the corporate world in Sydney and Melbourne, people work longer hours and have shorter holidays than anywhere in the UK

From what I've seen so far, everyone gets 20 days earned leave and that's it.

Is it the same for absolutely everyone, due to "Fair Work" regulations, or does it depend on what "award" you're on?

Back in the UK I got 35 days annual leave (although I was always too busy to take it all), but 20 seems pretty mean.

Australian shipping firm Discount Freight under investigation over vanishing valuables

An Australian international shipping firm is under investigation after gaining an unwanted tag for continually losing people's prized possessions.

Discount Freight claims to offer the "best prices" and "best quality freight services" between Australia and "190 countries".

But Fairfax Media has found that, for more than 10 years, the firm has been playing cat and mouse with scores of irate customers, many of whom paid for a "door-to-door" worldwide delivery service – and never saw their possessions again. In other instances, the firm has taken payments for services, then failed to collect the items.

(cont'd) http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/australian-shipping-firm-discount-freight-under-investigation-over-vanishing-valuables-20150916-gjo6wo.html

Been using ibVPN for about 5 years. US$4.95 a month. Mainly using iPlayer and occasional 4OD.

Don't actually have a TV - all Internet.

We are going to Bali in a few weeks and have no visa label. Although we plan to have a copy of our visa notification from IMMI with us in paper form.

Where'd you go, @srh82? I ended up staying (randomly) in Ubud.

First time there - loved it!

And the best thing: only 6 hours to fly back to Sydney.

If you join the frequent flyer programmes for Virgin ("Velocity") and Qantas, they often e-mail you details of last-minute "flash sales" with heavily reduced prices, although these are usually at very short notice and have restrictive dates when they are valid.

Virgin had a big bunch of reduced fares on domestic fares recently though.

See also here https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement

It will be 35 years of contributions from next April.

it's pro-rata though, right? i.e. you don't get nothing if you have less than 35 years of NI contributions.

Also, depends how old you are.

Climate info for every major city in the world is on wikipedia. Easy comparison.

You won't be able to use the smart gate / biometric passport as children cannot use it.

OP didn't mention the ages of anyone involved.

Just to follow up - I came through "Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport" last night with no problem at all.

Apart from the ridiculous price of beer.

There's no queue for citizens as such... the difference is those eligible to use the "ePassport" and "SmartGate" system. For this you need a passport with biometric chip.

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Ente/Goin/Arrival/Smartgateor-ePassport

Check the website for the list of countries who are eligible to enter through the smartgate system -- the options are changing regularly as they try to widen the system.

OK, so by "untreated" I am assuming that anything that's stained, varnished or painted wouldn't be a problem?

Sorry for the very lazy post - I'm on a super-flakey wifi connect here in Bali (#firstworldproblems) and this is the second time I've tried to post this...

I've read the "bio-security" stuff about what you can't import, mainly for amusement (novelty pencil erasers, dolphins, etc...) and I seem to remember WOODEN items are on there, but...

I also have heard that you can just get stuff fumigated as you come in?

So: is this prohibitively expensive/too much hassle? Can I bring stuff in like this, or is it better to give up and try and buy the stuff from importers when I get back to Sydney?

Thanks!