Joobles

On 16/06/2017 at 15:32, Andrew from Vista Financial said:

Sorry for the delay Julia

1 - I understand it is highly unlikely that you will be able to open a bank/savings account with a UK provider as an Australian Resident and new customer (although I can't speak for every provider), what about your existing bank (as an existing customer), perhaps worth exploring.

2 - 3% is around the best cash rates available so not likely you will get much better than this without taking some capital risk.

Getting a new mortgage as an expat is not easy but is possible, again the first port of call would be your existing lender to see if you could do a product switch (so still staying with them as a provider), failing that source a specialist Broker in this area, I may be able to give you a contact if you need.

regards

Andy

Thanks Andy, that's helpful advice. 

On 09/06/2017 at 17:34, Andrew from Vista Financial said:

Hi Julia

This is not really a case that a Financial Adviser would take on as it is predominantly based on exchange rates (what's your view and where are you comfortable exchanging?) and whether or not a property may sell.

Option 1 - Potentially better outcome if the exchange rate improves in the future short-medium term;

Option 2 - Potentially better outcome if it doesn't improve BUT if it did it may not have to move too much in the short-term to outweigh the gain (particularly if it is a sizeable amount);

Option 3 - Could be a good strategy if the exchange rate improves in the future as it is likely the interest rate is higher on the mortgage than the interest you would get in a UK savings account (maybe even an Australian one depending on the mortgage rate), BUT as you say if you are reliant on this property selling to release the money then perhaps not such a good strategy (in addition to the potential tax liability to weigh up if you would otherwise be keeping it).

If you did not put it into the UK mortgage are the funds enough to enable you to purchase the Australian property when the full inheritance amount arrives?

If they are could you consider re-financing that mortgage to one that offers an offset (or switching products to an offset with the current lender) so you can park the money allowing it to be withdrawn without selling?

The above also does not factor in the potential growth (or short term loss) of the asset that you will be purchasing here with the money, for example option 1 might not be a good option after all if the asset you would have purchased in Australia grows better than the increase in the exchange rate you might have achieved while you have been waiting, if that makes sense.

Anyway hope this helps a little bit, obviously it doesn't give you THE answer but there's so many variables in the end to consider and the above are some of them.

Regards

Andy

 

  

Hi Andy

Thanks for your response. I probably didn't make my question clear - I'm just trying to weigh up options and make sure I've considered everything.

Option 1: My understanding is that as a non-UK resident I won't be able to open a new savings account so I'm stuck with 0.5% for the account I have - is that correct?

Option 2: I know I can get an account with 3% interest but is there a better option than just putting it in a regular savings account? An account that requires notice would be ok as it might be 6 months - 1 year till I get the rest of my inheritance.

I like the idea of an offset mortgage, that could be a good option for us, would this be difficult to get as an expat?

Many thanks for your help!

Julia 

Good morning

I am in need of some financial advice!  I have inherited a sum of money, the first portion of which is currently in my bank account in the UK - sitting above the guarantee limit and not earning any interest!  I would like to bring it over here at some point and use it to buy property but as I don't yet have the full amount there is no rush to do so, and the exchange rate has of course just dropped.

My options as I see it are:

1. Leave it in the bank account and cross my fingers

2. Move it here regardless of the exchange rate so it starts earning interest

3. Put some of into our property which is currently let out, with a view to sell that property when we get the full amount.  This would have tax implications though (not sure if they would negate the benefits?) and if we couldn't sell that property we could end up having to get a more expensive mortgage in order to withdraw the money

Is this something that Vista would be able to help us with?

Many thanks

Julia

I did the hop on, hop off. We originally did it over on the east and enjoyed it so much we booked it for the west too. I think we did it over almost 4 weeks.

I did a moose bus trip in Canada, it was great fun. It's jump on/jump off so you can take as long as you like to do the whole thing. Oh and it's about 10 people I think, so it's not like the kiwi bus!

My skills assessment took 12 weeks and this is the first step. By the time we got our PR it was almost the same timing as if we had done the direct route and we started the process around 14 months in.

I would advise getting a depreciation report, my husband and I went from owing $4.5k to $300 after providing depreciation reports for our two UK properties.

Our accountant also advised us we had completed our UK returns incorrectly and that we should not be paying an UK tax as we would be eligible to use our personal tax allowance. On this basis we received refunds from HMRC for this and last year!

You could send your belongings early enough to meet you at the other end and rent furniture here?

Froothie do a cheaper one, I love mine.

Hi Joobles,

 

I really hate criticising agents publicly but I would seriously suggest you need a second opinion.

 

cheers,

 

George Lombard

Thank you, I will pass this on, along with your contact details if that's ok.

The agent has said if it doesn't come up it can be decalared as a minor offence, if it does then it becomes major.

Thanks for everyone's reply.

Seek professional advice.

Thanks. They already are but their agent seems to be suggesting that if it doesn't come up on their police check then it's all good. My understanding is that they should declare it regardless?

Good afternoon

My good friend is applying for employer sponsored permanent residency and her husband has a criminal record. He received a 12 month suspended sentence 18 years ago (aged 20) and they are concerned that this is going to cause an issue. Since then he has been to uni, got married, had a child and been continuously employed both in the UK and Australia.

Can you advise if you would expect this to lead to a refusal and is there anything they can do to mitigate the chances? They are currently in Australia.

Many thanks for your feedback.

Also a good point, guess I'm just hedging my bets! It's not that I don't expect to retire here, I can't say for certain we will. The UK properties - or at least one of them should have capital growth at least and it wouldn't be a good time to bring pounds over so I don't want to sell right now anyway.

Thanks Andrew, that is a good point however I think whether we buy or not we will still need more for our retirement and the amount I'm planning to pay in every month is not going to make a big difference to a deposit! If we do want to buy I think we will need to sell in the U.K. -just not sure I'm ready for that!

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think we will start salary sacrifice but keep the savings we have currently in the bank and keep adding to it. We'd love to own a house here but it feels out of reach at the moment.

Hi there

My husband and I are in the fortunate position of being able to save quite a bit every month and it's currently just sitting in an ING savings account. I'm wondering if we should start to make additional super contributions - especially as we are 40 and have only starting paying super in the last 2 years.

Does this make good financial sense or should I be looking at some other type of investment? I'm a bit unsure of the options here - in the UK I'd have been opting for ISAs and overpaying on my mortgage (we rent here but still have 2 properties in the U.K.).

Many thanks for any advice.

If it helps any, my husband had to do a medical too as part of our visa application so it's not the case that it's just the main applicant.

Thanks for the replies.

As the house is in joint names, you split the income and expenses in two and both declare half.

 

You firstly declare your separate halves in the UK, the UK has first bite of the cherry not Australia. In the first year you will likely have a tax burden to UK as you will presumably have had employment income for part of the year. So you pay the tax to HMRC. You then complete the Australian tax return, you again both declare your half of the profit but you also declare the tax paid in UK and this is knocked off the Australian tax bill.

 

After the first year, your rental profit will probably be covered by the UK personal allowance. But it is the same process, UK has first bite of the cherry, you do tax returns for both countries and any tax paid in UK is knocked off the Australian bill - which going forward is likely to be zero. So Australia gets all the tax - but only by default - the UK will always have first bite of the cherry as that is ehere the property is.

We have 2 properties in the U.K., one in joint names and one my husband owned before we got married, can' we split them both between us on our tax returns?

Thanks BB and LR.

The $1300 is actually to do the UK and AU so yes, effectively the AU one is half that amount. I was wondering if I could just get mine or my husbands done and then be able to figure the other one out myself. Which it sounds like I could LR from the fact that you have said you just needed the first one done.

BB, I have had a quote to have a depreciation report done on one of our properties, the other is about 130 yrs old so I'm not sure it worth it, but that's quite a saving! I'll send you a pm.

Thanks again for your help,

J

Taxation issues between UK and Australia can be complicated, so I would suggest consulting a tax agent who is competent with both systems.

Thanks for your reply, I have had a quote but it was over $1300 so I was hoping to be able to do it myself.

Can anyone help? tx

Hi everyone,

This year is my first year as PR and I'm trying to figure out how to do my tax returns. I have done my own in the UK for years as I have rental property and I did my Australian one last year as a 457 holder but this is the first time I've needed to declare my UK income in Oz so I'd like to check my thinking below is correct:

1. complete UK tax return as normal, do not declare anything for double taxation relief. I expect to have a tax bill to pay as I am making a profit and am registered as a non resident landlord

2. complete Oz tax return and use the rental income and mortgage interest (debt deductions) to calculate the foreign tax offset (this bit looks complicated!). For the rent etc I can use the average exchange rate, for the tax I'm thinking it should be the actual exchange rate (from the ATO site).

This info I've gleaned from the HMRC and ATO websites - but have I interpreted it correctly?!

Many thanks for any help or advice,

JB