Ausvisitor

11 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I suppose these days, you'd put the properties on AirBnB. There are plenty of agencies now, who will handle AirBnB bookings, maintenance etc. for you. 

However, I don't think I'd want to do it either.   The result of @Ausvisitor's idea would be that all three of the houses wouldn't be homes, they'd be impersonal AirBnB rentals that I happen to own.  It wouldn't be worth getting my personal stuff out of storage for the three or four months I was in each one.  

I think, if I really wanted to live a nomadic retirement, I'd have 3 small apartments, not houses, and split my personal treasures between all three.  Then perhaps I could afford not to rent them out at all, and all three would feel like home.  Apartments would be more secure than a house if they're left empty for 3 or 4 months every year.

I suppose some might do it that way, we won't we will leave the homes "ready to return to" and just lock up and leave.

Family could use the holiday property in Europe but there is no way we are renting out houses on airbnb

1 hour ago, Jon the Hat said:

I will also benefit, but I am also smart enough to recognize that in addition to lots of hard work over many years, I also benefitted from being born white, in an prosperous part of a developed western country with high education standards,  went to a school that encouraged us to believe we could go to university, to parents who believe in hard work and making the most of your opportunities.  I also had a great group of friends at school who helped me stay on the right side of doing too many stupid things, and have been fortunate in being in the right place at the right time career wise.  Lots of people don't get these starts in life, and it is no bad thing to pay a bit more tax to help boost them up.

We will have to disagree, but I do respect your viewpoint I just don't think the same.

1 hour ago, Ken said:

But it wasn't in this budget. it was in the LNP budget two years ago years ago (maybe longer) they just pushed it way down the road so they knew could scrap it before it came into force if necessary. This budget has merely decided not to scrap it (same as last year's budget) or to be precise has pushed the decision on scrapping it down the road again. That's because they know there's still time to scrap it in next year's budget as that will still be before it comes into force - and there's a better than even chance that they will.

They almost certainly won't scrap the tax cuts - it would open them up to lots of criticism

I could see them introducing some new levy (or change to some other existing tax/charge) that effectively gave with one hand and took with the other

3 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

Perhaps because the country can ill afford it. If one has the fortune to be among the highest earners why shouldn't they contribute accordingly? We have an ever increasing inequality in this country. Why increase that? There are countless creative accounting ways in place in order to minimise tax. 

Why should someone contribute more because they earn more?

The fairer option would be everyone gets $50k tax free and every cent above that gets taxed at 35%

 No one can say that approach is unfair and it delivers more cash to the lower paid than the current system but works out about the same on overall tax take

4 hours ago, Parley said:

You don't need the money though. A lot more deserving cases out there.

But that money only exists to be taxed because I want it. If someone else wants it they could also work as hard as I do.

On 09/05/2023 at 16:41, paulhand said:

You should upload everything straight away. You can do this once the application is submitted. 

@paulhand it used to be that many suggested waiting until notified before uploading medicals and police checks due to their expiry dates.

Is the processing significantly faster now so that expiry isn't as much of an issue?

11 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

 

Thank you @Sloth, I appreciate this link too as we're also deliberating what to do with our property should we move overseas. And whilst no substitute for professional advice, it's good to have some general information. If I'm going to be charged 32.5% tax on any rental income by the ATO, then I'd want to feel confident in getting a tax credit country of tax residence. There may be a DTA agreement between Australia and many countries, but negotiating the tax system in some countries could be a minefield. And what if you have no income in your country of residence - can you still receive a tax credit over there?

To me it seems that unless one was only going to be a away for couple of years, or moving to a country with a very low tax regime, just selling up is the most straightforward option.

Our plan, but it is 20+ years away yet, is to keep the house in Aus, the UK and the one in Europe and just perpetually ping-pong around them all.

If we get it just right we might even end up not tax resident anywhere (although they'll still find a way to tax us)

14 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

They don't need to scrap it, but it would be better to lower the threshold of the higher rate to ensure the lower paid do better without handing $10,000 tax cut to those earning over $200k.

I don't see any problem with the tax cut.

But then I'm in the group that everyone seems to be treating like lepers (you know that group so good at what they do they get paid over $250k for doing it - and in the process also pay for everyone else to get tax cuts and benefits).

This might be the first time in my 40 years on the planet when I actually benefit from something in the budget and you all want to take that away from me

As someone who did the same a few years ago I wouldn't pull out of the house sale just maybe look for some temp accommodation or maybe just go on a roadtrip around the UK enjoying a few months free time.

That said unless you've actually been granted the visa there is still no guarantee you will get them, so there is no simple answer here

I live in Sydney, the only people I know that are moving to Canberra are those that love Sydney but can no longer afford it.

They are all gutted to be leaving the main city - the one the entire globe considers to be Australia

Australia is (to the world)

Kangaroo

Koala

Hot

Opera House

Bridge

All easily got within 3 km of Sydney CBD, nowhere else can claim that

On 28/04/2023 at 18:42, Bulya said:

Booming!  Just home from a pub crawl and everywhere is packed with smiles on their faces.  There’s a reason the ACT is the fastest growing state/territory…

Yep - cos it's dirt cheap and populated with people with young families who just want to hang at home/park with the kids.

It's a cultural wasteland and a place to avoid if you have any ambition in life (unless you are a politician)

I've never heard of it being a problem, but a smart immigration agent could easily decide to kick up a fuss.

If the actual salary is 85k it isn't hard to see why they couldn't find an on shore applicant that would do it for 60-80.

So you've gamed the system, but I suspect you'll get away with it.

On 16/04/2023 at 17:15, Jem said:

Hello. You know what we really considered NSW but felt like I have met lots of people from nsw moving to Adelaide. Or are the just moving from Sydney to Adelaide as they still need a city…hmmm

i keep hearing Sydney is so expensive to live! And I think I am generalising NSW.

to be honest nsw looks right up my street! But I feel like we would have to live regional to be there. Also is it more expensive all round ? Apologises for my ignorance.

we have 3 boys who are into soccer and one who is very good! So opportunities are important to us. I’m a social worker. My husband in aerospace but he’s used to working in more advanced places then Adelaide offers.

 

If your kids are into soccer they probably should have stayed in Europe, soccer over here is about in a par with the National League North (i.e. 6 divisions below the premiership)

I listened to Gary Lineker on a podcast they other day, he was talking about kids that are "very good" at football. He cited Chelsea's academy which has over 700 kids in it who are all "excellent" yet in the last 15 years only 6 of them have made it though to the premiership and less than 50 to any sort of professional role.

That said soccer is the biggest participation sport in Australia (NSW certainly) by miles so they won't have trouble finding teams 

15 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

It's been 35 years for a while, but it also depends on whether you opted out of SERPS back in the 90s in which case it might be more than 35 years. In my case it'd be about 38 years, not that I'm bothered as the Aussie government would just knock more off any Aged pension payment I received over here.

For anyone starting now it's 35 years.

For those who had paid in and not opted out of SERPS there was a levelling calculation done as the extra SERPS allowance you would have gotten got added back in as extra contributions.

I ended up needing 25 years of contributions and I'd already done 22 when the change came in, so it's totally possible lavers might only need 30 years

It's a guide at best. If you dig deep somewhere it will say you'll get your decision in 90 days, except when you don't (or words like that).

Generally the figure they quite is how quickly 75% of applicants get dealt with, with those not in that grouping (i.e. the easy ones - although no idea what makes something easy or hard) taking longer

11 hours ago, StevenP said:

That is fair enough I was just really wondering if anyone has been granted one recently and the timeline. I think we will be going for the 189 so question might be irrelevant anyway. I won’t bother Paul just now as I know he’s busy but when we engage after the skills assessment results are back. 
 

I know it's too late now, but the better time to engage him would have been before the skills assessment.

My agent gave me loads of tips on the best way to prep and submit the skills assessment, and if you get that wrong the dream is over.

Arguably my agent was more helpful prior to submitting the EOI than afterwards (as in doing all the due diligence to give advice we collated pretty much everything we needed for the whole process so there were no surprises)

1 hour ago, InnerVoice said:

 

 

It's the best it's been for 12 months and won't go up forever. If I was moving to Australia next month I'd transfer some money now, and some nearer the time - I like to hedge my bets!

Which is exactly what we are doing, but moving over about $1.5m to pay for a house, so even a tiny difference makes a huge impact.

Like if we'd done the transfer at the peak of the Liz Truss debacle we would be nearly $200k worse off (and that's only 4 months ago or thereabouts)

It's also not as good a rate as it was 15 months ago, so it could get better

Cashing in an ISA is never a good idea unless you need to, the tax benefits (whilst possibly negligible by now) grow every year.

Depends if you think you will ever move back to UK

On the app it's around £40 or £50k - can't remember exactly. I have no trouble pushing over $50k chunks (about £28k) anytime I want to (other than having enough money to do it).

You can do more but you have to arrange that with a person.

You can do multiple transfers in a day that as far as I can tell has no limit. (Except for the per transfer limit above on each transfer you do)

The fees are a percentage of amount transferred so doesn't matter if you do it as one bulk sum or a few smaller ones

11 hours ago, psuwara said:

Hello,

 

we are looking at possibly opening a childcare centre focused on the Eastern European immigration community.

If you are an immigration agent and can provide services in managing the visa process, can you please PM here to exchange contact details and follow up, thanks.

Regards,

You will struggle to get a visa based on that as what you are suggesting is bordering on illegal. The Australian childcare licensing bodies do not allow discrimination based on nationality

My timeline is as follows

Feb 2019 engaged agent

Apr 2019 put in for sponsorship from NSW via EOI

May 2019 sponsorship granted and given link to apply for 190 visa

June 2019 visa application submitted

Dec 2019 visa granted

9 hours ago, Toots said:

Foreign ownership of property happens in most countries.  e.g. Foreign owners hold 9.7 billions pounds worth of property in the UK.  45 billion pounds worth of property in London alone.  Shouldn't be allowed.

Of course it should be allowed.

People should be free to buy property where they choose.

It isn't just Russia and China buying up the UK and AUS, our own billionaires and companies but huge swathes of other countries property too.

Just because we can't afford to do it ourselves doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed...

The reality is, in my view alone, Australia is still much better than the UK. Just a more laid back attitude and simple pleasures (heat, beach, more outdoor spaces).

I probably earn less than I did in the UK (yes I'm that one guy who didn't get paid more when moving here) but it goes further.

I live slap bang in Sydney's Inner West, there isn't really a more expensive lifestyle anywhere in Australia but it's still hands down more fun than anywhere in London.

Is it perfect ? Certainly not, but I don't see the crime cess pit and drug addled youth that others seem to say is everywhere, yes plenty of drugs in Newtown but it's the "recreational" variety not the "life ruined" demogeaphic

That said drugs in the modern world are like rats in the London underground. If you can't see some straight in front you it's because you aren't looking hard enough. That said it's mainly innocuous and certainly it is way more prevalent in the cities in the UK and US than AUS

5 minutes ago, Drumbeat said:

I’m surprised you say that data protection isn’t a big thing in Australia yet. I recently retired from the Health IT sector in WA and it’s definitely an expanding department there. 
A former colleague of mine completed a Masters in Cyber Security about a year ago so I’m guessing she saw an increasing need in that area of Project Management.

I would agree, I run a whole practice on data management here in Sydney, we must have (not all work for me) at least 200 consultants actively working on this, and each of the other big-4 have similar numbers (in Sydney alone).

Every client I speak to is hiring data protection people at a furious rate (the only qualification at the moment seems to be able to say data protection).

It's probably the hottest career and topic in Australia at the moment - you can thank Optus and Medibank for that.

If you can't get a job in data protection in 2023 you never will, the market has never been hotter...

If course we don't (and most client orgs don't either) advertise these roles, we head hunt them and recruit direct from masters courses. If you are offshore you will almost certainly never see an advert for DP here, and if you did we'd take one look at the fact you aren't onshore and ignore the application we all need people to start yesterday not some point in the future.

If you are serious about working in that sector in AUS then get over here quickly - as a side note the sorts of salaries being paid for DP people here right now is in the 130k-180k range, so between 2&3 times what you are getting in the UK