mt9754

It certainly crossed my mind, although feels like it’s probably not practical. Has anyone else had these thoughts? Really missing family in the UK, 2 Christmases away in a row is going to be pretty tough. But i guess practically, spending 12 weeks in the UK will make the tax messy and i’m probably still going to have to fly business to get back, unfairly stealing a seat from someone who might need it more, plus pay for hotel quarantine again.

Looking at the details here, you only need to have applied for a visa when you apply for an exemption: https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/travel-restrictions

Remember that if on balance you have lived abroad longer than you have in lived in Australia in the last 12-24 months then they’ll let you out too. This rule means I could leave now if I wanted but not after June.

Fair enough, i’m more positive about EV. There are plans for Australia to produce 8 times more electricity than they need (via solar) and make good money exporting to neighbours so I don’t think lack of electricity will be a problem. Petrol is such an inefficient conversion of power (12%) vs EV (77%). I personally have a wacky idea that solar will be proven to cause global warming as well (due to the black panels absorbing as opposed to reflecting) and we’ll be putting white silica sand over stuff in 15 years lol, but pretty sure we’ll be gold with wind power.

What a strange thread

True, not there yet but things are moving quick. The new batteries this year can now charge to 100% and still last 800,000km before degrading a bit - the technology is really changing fast at the moment.

Yes those hybrid plugins will be gone in a couple of years and EVs should be cheaper than ICE cars by then

2nd hand start at $20k (eg Nissan Leaf), new from $40k (eg MG ZS EV) or $70k for Hyundai Kona / Tesla Model 3. Also bear in mind modern EVs need almost zero servicing (wiper fluid, tyre rotation), last much longer and resale values hold up better as a result.

If you can make the numbers add up then consider an EV. I’ve used free chargers mostly (at Woolies etc) so only spent $17 on ‘fuel’ in total so far.

Halifax aren’t great at handling cases out of the ordinary. Does that mean you’re now locked out of your savings as well? As others have said, Lloyds / Halifax can automatically authenticate you if you call via the button when logged into the app. It calls a special number that allows you to bypass some checks.

I’d start with the weather to narrow things down. All the states are very family friendly, SA and WA are probably the most Englishy historically. WA (Perth) - Hottest (33-35°C), driest and windiest SA (Adelaide) - Hot (30-34°C), dry, cooler in winter Queensland (Brisbane) - Hot (30-32°C), humid, no discernible winter NSW (Sydney) - Hot (28°C) dry, warm winter Victoria (Melbourne) - Cooler (24-26°C) wetter, cooler winter (still much nicer than UK!)

Worth mentioning Qatar airways is a problem at the moment :(, hopefully the UK lift their ban for Doha soonish

It is a valid reason (and as I understand it, the UK are bound by international law to let you go)

BA are good for extra baggage but they’re not flying at the mo. Qatar and Cathay are the worst but are flying. Take a look at sendmybag.com and similar sites, you might save yourself a fair bit.

They don’t seem to use credit checks much out here, they prefer to know your story. Most creditors require 3 years worth of Australian addresses but if you call them up they’re often happy to accept UK addresses. Typical docs needed are 3 months of payslips (ideally with an Australian address on there), Australian driving license and medicare card, they’ll also use your UK passport to confirm visa status.

Ah i see, from reading the gov website I believe if you receive any income in the UK (rent, sale of house etc) then it should be declared (regardless of tax residency status) but i’m new to all this too.

With the clothes, it depends where you’re settling - I settled in Queensland and I have found my UK summer clothes are ok but not great. A lot of the clothes out here are designed differently for the heat and humidity. For Brisbane, I have not worn a jumper in 9 months and not worn anything other than shorts in 6 months. And settling, we booked short term let through Hotels.com in the end, not cheapest but we didn’t want an AirBNB cancellation on our hands. On the negative side, we didn’t have access to a post box so we couldn’t sort out a lot of the paperwork properly until we moved to a 6-month let. So i’d be inclined to choose a property where you know the unit number and have access to the postbox.

That's right. The Qantas Melbourne flight sometimes technically has the same flight number the whole way from London to Melbourne but it stops in Perth for a few hours for a pit stop.

I would do what you think is right. Personally I would think being 2 months short due to lack of employment opportunities is morally ok. If you were looking to move interstate before even setting in the state, or 6 months in, then that would be a totally different matter.

This email thread implies you can continue to do self assessment for the UK online even after losing UK tax residency, is that right? I thought i read that tax returns have to be done on paper if you are no longer a UK tax resident. On the Gov UK site it says: Sending a Self Assessment tax return You cannot use HMRC’s online services to tell them about your income if you’re non-resident. Instead, you must do one of the following: fill in a Self Assessment tax return and an SA109 form and send by post use commercial Self Assessment software that supports SA109 reporting (this may appear as a ‘residence, remittance basis etc’ section) get a tax professional to report your UK income for you

Normally you'll get a conditional contract that includes clauses that you'll only proceed with the sale if the surveys come up good. Especially important to check for Termites apparently: https://finance.nine.com.au/personal-finance/buying-a-house-surveys/3ade57b4-3e0e-4357-bad7-913abdcd0473 Example of such a clause: https://www.nab.com.au/personal/life-moments/home-property/buy-first-home/building-inspection

Yep, just to echo others Qatar is best, some info about some of the other big carriers: 1. Qatar (no issues, except Adelaide) 2. Emirates (issues in Dubai at times) 3. Singapore Airlines (issues in Singapore at times) 4. British Airways (Sydney flight cancelled but good at honouring tickets and rebooking people on other airlines) 5. Cathay Pacific (issues in Hong Kong at times, quite a few routes cancelled but many still running) 6. Qantas (all flights cancelled but there are special charter flights)

Personal Loan

It's more things like: - Provide 3 years of address - the form doesn't allow you to type in international addresses - What is your income? - typically they prefer you to use the number on your payslip and leave notes for other forms of income - Are you renting or do you own? - typically they want your situation in Australia and will leave notes if you own in the UK

It's so true :-). To ensure this doesn't happen, make sure you ask the agent to leave notes on the application. You normally can't leave notes if you apply yourself on the website.