dharmaqueen

We left in 2013 and waiting for my 19 year old to do the same! Would need to register for Medicare as well. We suspended our medicare to avoid lifetime loading (or whatever it’s called) when we left but not sure if that would apply to someone leaving as a child and returning - either way, a trip to the medicare office (perhaps worth having travel insurance in place for transit & until he gets registered)

It’s nice to be remembered I remember you as JockinTas and Toots. I remember your love of Tas, often wondered if it would have suited us better. I have never had a moments regret in moving back to Scotland. I don’t regret moving to Australia though, just part of life’s journey and love where we live even more as a result. My son was only 5 when we moved there and he was determined to hate it! I have no doubt he would have moved back at 18! As it is now he has a balanced view, he is very much Scottish first and is going to University here, he says he wouldn’t live in Australia but it’s still good he has the option. We are encouraging him to travel and most of the courses he has applied for have the option of an international year and his first choice Uni offers Australia. It took some therapy for him to finally start talking to us about how he was in Australia. It seems he was afraid to like it in case we didn’t stay, we did go on 457 visas but naively never considered we wouldn’t stay but who knows what we said that might have made him uncertain. We didn’t move back because of our son but if he’d been a true blue Aussie - which moving there at 5 and staying 5 years I would have expected then I wouldn’t have considered disrupting him. His distress at leaving Scotland after our last holiday here in 2012 certainly played into the decision. I thought we’d have been back to visit and I keep in touch with friends but have never had the urge. If our son does end up spending time there then that will be the time I guess! So glad you’re still happy, definitely a better place to be during the pandemic and must feel safer there now than it does in Europe.

Thank you - that’s what was confusing me. Looks like a trip to London is on the cards then unless there happens to be an outreach visit to Edinburgh soon but with COVID restrictions just lifting seems unlikely. Funny seeing a familiar name here I was Milesawaygirl then Lady Rainicorn back in the day

Hi all, it’s been a while! We returned to the UK in 2013 with our son and his passport has since expired. With recent events in Europe I would like is all to have valid Australian passports ‘just in case’ but his was a child passport and has expired. I have been looking at the renewal process and it seems you can now apply online which is fantastic as a trip to London is best avoided! But it’s unclear whether a child to adult renewal can be done this way - my son is now 18! Does anyone know? He wants to take a gap year in Australia anyway so worth doing anyway. He’s hoping to spend a year at Uni in Australia but it depends on the course offers he gets & whether Australia is one of the options.

Since I'm speculating on something maybe 5 years off not thought everything through but we will be moving from our current home as part of retirement planning so could potentially sell up, travel & then buy our next place when returning to the UK. We do have a 'buy to let' that we had all the time we were in Australia & lived in briefly on our return before renting out again & definitely paid our taxes in Australia not the UK. It does sound if we were only out for the minimum time it could be questionable though. Would travelling rather than a fixed abode make it more likely we would not be viewed as resident in Australia?

I think I'm wrong and it probably is 60 but in any case if we were to spend time in Australia it would be after my OH is 60. The reason for taking a lump sum is to enable me to retire a year or two earlier & live on it until I qualify for a state pension - it's not a case of being desperate for it, more a lifestyle choice. I genuinely like the idea of doing an extended trip to Australia and if our pension fund in Australia can pay for that fantastic! Actually the amount we are talking about wouldn't put my husband in the higher tax bracket anyway so perhaps it's not as bad as I thought - he's got about $30k, growing of course

I still haven't pulled put the documentation but found this info online so I'm going to assume for now it is 60 - we definitely wouldn't spend time in Australia in the next 4 years anyway so it doesn't make any real difference - unless the exchange rate suddenly soars in GBP favour & we want to bring the money here :)

Hi, this thread kind of answers the question I have just posted but if I was to become resident in Australia again, could I cash in my Super tax free? Is there a time frame on how long I would need to be a resident, before & after I cashed it in? Would I need a permanent address in Australia or would travelling in a motorhome still be considered resident? I do have citizenship but returned to the UK in 2013 after 5 years in Australia. Many thanks

Hey, some of you may remember me as Mileswaygirl & Lady Rainicorn - I joined PIO before moving to Perth in 2008 & left after we moved back in 2013. My husband is now 56 and retired - he has income from property & small UK pensions, obviously won't get a state pension until he is 67. We both have GESB pensions in Australia & I believe the preservation age is 55 - I also have another pension fund from the year I worked for BT. I understand if we take a lump sum from these pensions it will be taxed by HMRC & wondered if there was any way around this. The amounts involved are not huge so wondering if it was possible to take an extended 'holiday' in Australia - over the 183 days required to be resident for tax purposes & therefore not pay tax in the UK. # Would we need a fixed address in Australia? We were able to travel very little when we lived there and have probably seen less than most people from the UK who take a holiday in Australia so would love to buy an RV and travel for 6-12 months & that'd be a great way to spend the pension pot! Or would we need to be in Australia for a period of time before claiming our super to be considered residents? Just to be clear - I am talking here about our own pension funds in Australia NOT Australian state pension which I have no expectation we would have any rights to. Would there we any impact on our UK state pension entitlement? What I am musing over is finishing work in the UK a couple of years before state retirement age & using the Australian pension funds to finance travel for a couple of years before claiming the UK state pension & our UK pension funds. I could put up with 6 months to Australia if I had too (only joking would love an opportunity to see the Kimberley's, Ningaloo, Broome, Uluru, rain forests in Queensland, Great Ocean Road etc.) If that's not going to be possible then for my husband it is worth us starting to look for a good time to bring his pension pot across to the UK - in terms of exchange rates & his UK income. I'm a higher tax rate payer so would not consider touching mine until I am retired. I know there used to be some experts on here who had lived in both countries and considered the pension impact so hoping I can pick your brains after a long absence!