MaroubraAndy

The wife wants to move back as much as I do, possibly more in fact. We both just love the climate and what that facilitates in terms of life style. We’re very much beach people, love anything to do with the water and want the same for our little ones!

..reading this back to myself, it sounds terribly selfish although that’s certainly not intended Im sure many folks have been in that situation where you’re essentially forced to choose between living the life that you want for yourself and for your kids versus a life that means you’re closer to your wider family. My heads tells me I should move back whilst my old life is still warm, with friendship circles and my wider network but in doing so I struggle with the feeling that I’m abandoning my parents with very little in the way of family support to look out for them. Baaaa what a decision..

Thanks for taking the time to type that out, all remarkably close to the truth! that certainly sounds like a difficult situation you’ve come through but hopefully you’re home and settled again down under. It kinda sounds morbid and all but you have to think about these things in advance as one day, be it sooner or later the situation will be reality. One of the more challenging aspects to my own situation is that my parents are pretty awesome at laying the guilt down and in truth hold an expectation that I should some how care for them in old age. I however simply can’t bare the idea of hanging around in the UK for what could be 10 or 20 years waiting for something to happen. My/our old life in Sydney is calling and we desperately want it back!

Many thanks for all the information/guidance. In honesty aside from the financial considerations which are by no means insignificant, I agree with the majority of comments here that I think it’s probably not the best idea for them to make the move. I guess as an only child I feel an incredibly amount of responsibility for them so heading off again for what will more than likely be a permanent move this time fills me with guilt, and this was a fairly big contributing factor to us moving back to the UK. My wife and I have however talked it through to death but realistically we can’t get away from the fact that Oz is just a better place to raise our two boys. I guess it’s time to put my big big trousers on and get on with it..

Hey guys, My wife and I, both English, are looking to return from the UK back to Sydney after spending a couple of years in London Town. We’ve both Aussie citizens as are our kids so that isn’t an issue. This time however I’m thinking about the possibility of taking my elderly parents with me who are 71 and 79 respectively. My mum (71) does however take a plethora of drugs from blood pressure meds to back pain pills so I’m wondering if this type of thing would be exorbitantly expensive back in Oz considering they’d only be on temporary visas. Also as they get older and may require care, I’m guessing the cost of old age care could become very expensive very quickly? Any thoughts or experiences of anyone having done a similar move with elderly parents would be appreciated? Am I mental even considering it?

Alas that’s not true any more in the UK mate. They’ve been phasing out the percentage of your interest that you can offset for the last couple of years, down to what will be a maximum of 20% of your interest in a couple of years.. essentially trying to curb residential real estate investment and amateur landlords.

I guess one positive of the situation is that ‘currently’ I’d be able to offset all UK mortgage interest against my income, which is more than I can do in the UK at the moment.

Great, thanks, that’s what I’d assumed but wasn’t sure.

Hey guys, Im just about to move out to Oz again after trying out the UK again for a year. Finally we’ve decided Oz is it for us so we’re relocating permanently. We’re all Oz and UK citizens having obtained Oz citizenship from the 10 years we lived there previously. I’ll be working for a sydney based company again and considered a resident for tax purposes. Question is in relation to how UK income derived from UK property income will be treated in Oz. Say my UK income from rental properties is just shy of the UK personal tax threshold. At the end of the tax year in Oz how will that foreign income be assessed by the ATO? I know there’s a double tax treaty between UK and Oz but I don’t know if my UK personal tax allowance will be recognised by the ATO and consequently because rental property income doesn’t exceed the UK personal tax allowance, I won’t have to declare any additional foreign income? This is will have a huge baring on whether I sell my UK property or not!

It’s a difficult one. I lived in Oz for 10 years between 08 and 18 and retained a UK property throughout.. During that time I was never able to obtain either a new mortgage or change product with the existing provider so was essentially stuck on the same product throughout. Fortunately the existing product was very competitive so it didn’t matter too much.