coladuna

8 hours ago, Ken said:

The double taxation agreement does not mean not opting for split year treatment makes no difference. If you choose not to use split year treatment then you have to declare all of your income for the whole tax year and so you will be taxed in the UK on your Australian income - but the benefit of the double taxation agreement means you can offset the tax paid in Australia against it. This means if the UK tax on your Australian income is higher than the Australian tax on it you have to pay the difference - which is not as good as the benefit split year treatment will give you.

Yep, I am well aware of the differences. I meant there is no difference between declaring Australian income and seeking split year treatment and not declaring Australian income and not seeking split year treatment. In both cases, I will only be paying tax on UK income. Technically not the correct way, but not sure if i can be bothered with lodging via post or purchasing a separate software. It's ridiculous that you have no choice but to use a third party software if you are a non resident or seeking split year treatment.

I have read the rules today and I am definitely a resident for tax purposes and strictly speaking I need to opt for split year treatment but end result won't be any different as Australia and UK have double taxation agreement. My income while I was in the UK will be taxed in the UK and income from my new job in Australia will be taxed in Australia.

You misinterpret what I said. What I meant was that the free SA on HMRC site doesn't allow you to lodge a tax return that involves split year treatment. For that, you either have to send the form in via post or purchase a separate software.

I am not sure your interpretation is strictly correct either. Just because someone leaves the UK with no intention of returning, it doesn't mean that makes them a non resident. In my case, I am a resident for the tax year but I am eligible for split year treatment as I will pass the third automatic overseas test in the following tax year and I was a resident in the two preceding tax years.

Hi,

Could I please get some advice from UK tax experts?

I am an Australian citizen who was working in the UK for 5-6 years and moved back to Australia late last year.
When I moved back, I rented out the flat I was living in through an agency as I couldn't sell it and applied for non-resident landlord scheme.
I completed the P85 form after I left but I was told that I need to lodge self assessment instead. I presume it's because I have a rental property there. My wife's form was processed and she received tax refund without any issues.

My question is around the whole residency status and how to complete the self assessment. For the tax year in question, I lived in the UK for  184 days so I think that makes me a resident for UK tax purposes but does that mean that I just complete the tax return as a resident through HMRC's Self Assessment or does split year treatment apply in my case, or does it even matter? As far as I can tell, HRMC's Self Assessment can only be used by residents? Maybe non-residents as well but definitely not for split year treatment.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

We requested a quote from John Mason and quote we got was horrendously overpriced. We are only moving a small amount of stuff. Around 10 boxes and a golf bag.

Quote received from JM was almost double what Seven Seas quoted.

To those who went through the process of applying for an import permit, could you help with some questions?

I'm going back to Australia in October this year (flight is already booked) and still contemplating whether to take my car with me but thought I would apply for the import permit anyway just in case as it only costs $50. However, I have some issues with the documents that are required when applying for the permit.

1) I can't for the life of me find a copy of the sales invoice. It was purchased from a private seller and I thought we still drew up an invoice and signed it but I can't find it. I have bank statements that show transfer of money to the previous owner but that's about it.

2) I don't see how I can satisfy the 100 points required when applying for the permit. I have not resigned from my current job yet as I have 3 months notice period so plan to hand in my notice late in June. My wife and I will initially be living at my parents place so there is no rental agreement or proof of house purchase in Australia I can provide nor any telephone or utility related documents. As for the flat we are living in at the moment, we will most likely rent it out but we have not signed any rental agreement with an agency or anyone as it's too early to do that and won't probably be done until it's too late to even think about applying for import permit.

How do I go about solving the issues above? Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

2 hours ago, Impasse said:

Yeah, the DAB and ordinary radios and everything else works perfectly. Insurance has not been a problem; I think I only found one of the main insurers who wouldn't touch an import and premiums have been roughly what I'd pay in the UK I think.

I would definitely check with Mercedes Benz about the sat-nav before going; Jag here got in touch with the UK to get the scores on the doors so you can cut out the middleman, perhaps. Frankly even for my car I'm still not convinced that it *isnt* just a case of changing the data but I've given up arguing. All Jaguar would say is that the specification of Australian cars is different to their U.K. Cars which did surprise me, I admit. Perhaps Mercedes will be a bit more global in spec and there's no harm asking.

As for value, I would expect to pay less for an import myself (unless it was something highly exotic) but I would still expect your car to be worth it; Mercedes Benz is very popular over here.

Thanks.

I've done some man-maths and I just can't see how I would benefit from taking it with me.

I could sell it here and get about £27-29k for it which equates to A$46-49k. Taking it with me and getting it on the road will cost roughly £10k or A$17k. That means the car has cost me in the region of $63k-66k. In Australia, similar cars cost around $80-85k.
Assuming I get 20% less than market value due to it being an import, that means I will only break even as I can only get $64-68k for it.

Both insurance and rego seems more costly in Australia too. I pay around £370 a year for insurance in the UK but I tried getting a quote from Allianz (tried few others but they won't even give a quote online due to the high performance nature of the car) and they quoted me $1400.

It just seems like a lot of effort for not much gain. I'm also located in Aberdeen so it will probably cost me more to get the transported over to the nearest port.

8 hours ago, Impasse said:

A couple of years ago I asked whether it would be worth bringing my Jaguar XF over, and was told it would be. I thought I'd share my experience with you, briefly. 

The actual process of importing was quite simple and the physical part was not actually very expensive; the various duties and taxes payable in Australia weren't unexpected but were considerably more than the shipping! The only slight fly in the ointment was that the driver who collected my car and took it to the docks picked up a speeding ticket - I wasn't very impressed by that.

Once here, getting the car taken to a local garage for its blue slip was easy enough. There were no problems getting it approved either; the dual speedometer was good enough and the slightly curved wing mirror wasn't a problem even though I thought it might  be.

Things that weren't so good: I had expected that updating the sat-nav to local maps would be as simple as buying an Australian data upgrade for a couple of hundred dollars but it has turned out that I (apparently) need to replace the entire sat-nav unit, at the cost of a couple of thousand. Needless to say I haven't bothered with doing this. Replacing the speedo card was more cost than I could be bothered to incur too - no doubt a back street garage could have done it cheaper than Jaguar's quote but there's a digital speed readout too and I've been fine with that.

And that's about the only problem really.

Now then: I have just decided to sell the car as a trade-in. Red book indicates that a typical XF of similar type and vintage should be around the $30,000 mark as a trade in. Mercedes Benz offered me $12000 since they were apparently under the impression that a) the car was a year older than it is and b) that the odometer was reading 70,000 miles rather than kilometres. Audi had a good laugh at this and offered $25k which bearing in mind the reasonably high kms, no sat-nav, dual speedo and generally being an import, I was quite happy with. So come July, I'll be driving a local car.

Would I import again? I probably would - the experience was on the whole a positive one, with a few surprises with proposed costs that I declined, and gave me two more years with a great car which would cost me a whole lot more to buy over here.

So thank you for the advice!

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing your experience Impasse.

Did you have any problem getting insurance?

A few things that makes me hesitate taking my C63 with me is not knowing how difficult it would be to sell at a reasonable price due to it being a personal import and difficulty of getting insurance, especially due to it being a high performance car.

Your experience with sat nav is a bit off putting as well. Apart from sat nav, did the radio etc all work ok? Not sure if you have DAB, but if so, did this work ok?
 

Thanks

2 minutes ago, Iron Chef said:

It's a no-brainer, bring it over. C63s are very popular here.

Thanks Ironchef.

I have requested quote through the Ironlady website.

I wasn't sure whether I would lose too much money when I come to sell it due to it being an import as I know imports usually scare peole in Australia and it being quite an expensive car, whether it would be too difficult to sell.

Hi Ironchef,

We are moving back to Australia in October 2017 and was wondering whether it would be worth taking my car below?

Thanks

- year of manufacture  2013

- make, model & variant Mercedes Benz C63 AMG

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc)  Saloon

- engine size & fuel type  6.2L Petrol

- transmission  Automatic

- drive type (4WD, front wheel drive, etc)  Rear wheel drive

- mileage  38,000 miles

- any special features, options or modification  19 inch wheels, Harman Kardon sound system

- does it have aircon  Yes

- realistic current UK market value  £27,000

- Australian RedBook value (www.redbook.com.au - click through to the page with 'Private Price Guide', 'Trade In Price Guide' and 'Price When New' listed, then tell us the 'Private Price Guide' range)  $75,200 - $81,600

- Australian market value (http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/search.aspx - search for the closest matching vehicle)  $80,000-$90,000

- which Australian state/city  QLD / Brisbane