DIG85

On 04/06/2022 at 23:38, Parley said:

That is a very real loss of money. The value of your old house now less the amount of your proceeds you still have is a real loss.

 

Plus the wasted stamp duty on re-entry to the Australian market. Being out of the Sydney market for a family home for as little as 18 months in the 2010s is likely to have cost $100k minimum, given house price rises in that decade.

6 hours ago, theonetruechris said:

Hi peeps, so excited to be traveling to the UK next week for holidays via Hong Kong. Are there any restrictions or requirements other than international vaccine certificate? thanks in advance

You should be fine for the UK but I'd definitely be checking HK for restrictions - even if just transiting. I wouldn't be transiting anywhere in SE Asia atm due to their zero covid nonsense. I am currently in the UK for a holiday but made sure I transited in Abu Dhabi.

58 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

That is very true. Unfortunately there’s a lot of people who feel like Parley that “immigrants will take our jobs” so the government will be mindful of upsetting voters 

That unemployment is at record lows is surely not unrelated to the fact that we have just come out of a period when the borders were closed for the best part of two years.

The labour market has never been tighter; there has never been a better time to be an employee in Australia looking for work or, for many people, a massive pay rise.

Businesses are crying out for more workers because the supply of labour is too low, which has driven up wages.

I have no doubt that the government will open the floodgates to higher immigration as soon as it can, and the Libs would have done the same had they won the election. After all, a greater population means a greater pool of labour, which puts downward pressure on wages. A greater population also means more customers for businesses, which means more sales, which means more profits, which means more dividends for shareholders. What’s not to like?

21 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said:

Slight change to your wording, you will have to declare the gain in the UK, but it is likely the gain will be zero 

If the gain is wholly covered by principal private residence relief, there is no need to declare the gain in the UK. 

2 hours ago, imarcq said:

I was advised by the agent that because I had to lived in the house for several years no CGT was payable in UK. Are you saying this is incorrect? 

If the property was still your main home between the grant of probate at the end of 2020 and the exchange of contracts in March 2022 then principal private residence relief should eliminate any gain arising in that period. I didn't make that clear in my OP. The only potential issue is that if it was always your intention to sell the property once probate had been granted, HMRC could argue that the property was held as trading stock and any profit realised on its its sale should be regarded as trading income subject to income tax (as opposed to being a capital asset subject to CGT). This is a very long bow and it would have to be a pretty grumpy inspector who took the point.

Assuming it was a CGT asset, the fact you lived in the property between 2015 and 2020 is irrelevant because you did not own the property during that period.

The UK main residence exemption is only available in respect of the period you actually owned the property. This was not until 2020 or even 2021, depending on when probate was granted. However, that does mean you will only be charged to UK CGT on the uplift in value over the one year period you owned it. You should be able to reduce the amount of any capital gain by the annual exempt amount of GBP 12,300.

The taxing point for any gain - both in the UK and Aus - is generally when contracts are exchanged (or, in the case of conditional contracts, when the contract goes unconditional), not when money is transferred from one country to another.

There should be no Aus CGT because you were not tax resident in Aus when the property was sold.

The transfer of the money does not need to be declared in either country. 

43 minutes ago, imarcq said:

Hi there,

I moved back to UK in 2015 to care for my elderly Dad who sadly passed in 2020. I inherited his house, sold it in April 2022, returning to live in Sydney this May 2022. I lived in his house with him as his carer for the whole time.

When I transfer the money to Australia, to buy a home here, will I need to declare it or pay CGT? I know that in UK no GCT was payable as it had been my main residence for seven years. Is there anything I should be aware of when transferring the cash to Australia, apart from waiting until the exchange rate improves!

 

2 hours ago, ramot said:

Two of my friends had their applications canceled.            Details correct to the best of my memory                                                     

One was out of Australia for just over 3 months in the year of application?

The other as far as I know had accumulated too many days out of Australia over a certain number of years pre application?

Without further information, I'm not sure this proves anything.

The second person never submitted a valid application in the first place, so him or her being out of the country post application had nothing to do with the application being rejected.

The first person's application may also have been invalid if those 3 months outside Australia were prior to the application and they had also spent time outside Australia in previous years, such that their combined period outside Australia exceeded 12 months in the previous 4 years. If the 3 months outside Australia occurred post-application, did he or she inform DHA of their intended absence, as you are required to do? 3 months' absence post-application does not seem like a particularly long period.

22 hours ago, Ken said:

Yes, the residency requirement is frozen at the date of application but that won't apply if you need to make a new application. It depends upon whether your application can be resumed or not. That will depend upon whether your previous application was put on hold or was cancelled.

I was not aware that DHA could cancel a citizenship application simply because the applicant had gone abroad. My understanding accords with mixology’s - the OP need do nothing because the processing of the application will be resumed on his or her return to Australia.

The experience of some of my colleagues is that it often gets approved quite quickly after the applicant’s return to Australia - which suggests that processing continues whilst the applicant is abroad and DHA is just waiting for the applicant to return before they hit the approve button. Obviously that will be different in the OP’s case because he or she has not sat the test, but it could all happen quite quickly now they are back in Aus.

8 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

 

$8k temp accom for 6 weeks

 

 

 

Must have been staying in a hotel for that price!

3 hours ago, Ken said:

If you find a way to do that then please let us know on PIO. Unfortunately I would expect that you need to make a fresh application and you will need to wait until you are eligible to do so (in May 2025 when you'll have been in the country for 3 out of the previous 4 years provided you don't leave the country before then).

I always thought that the residency requirement was "frozen" at the date of the application? i.e. it does not need to be satisfied on a go forward basis once the application has been submitted. 

I also understood that the processing of the application would be resumed on the applicant's return to Australia.

3 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

This is not correct, this requirement was introduced in 2017.  Prior to that if you were not earning in Australia you had no requirements to make any HEC / HELP repayments or to inform the ATO of your overseas income.  

There still is no requirement for a person tax resident outside Australia to inform the ATO of their non-Australian income (which is the OP’s current circumstance). 

I think confusion has arisen here because, as I said in my previous post, the OP appears to be under a misapprehension or maybe just mistyped his or her belief about Australian tax lodgement obligations. 
 

10 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

Just remember with premium bonds, you are putting the money somewhere that earns no interest at all.  You are hoping for some wins that will be the equivalent of lost interest or much more if lucky.  It’s harder now than ever to win on them.  That said, some get lucky.  My friends sister recently won £10k on her £50k holdings.  Many win smaller amounts, very often £25 a time.  If you’re happy to put your money somewhere with no guaranteed return but with the hope of getting something equal to or much better than interest then it’s an option. I know people that have never won a thing.  The more you have in there the higher your chances of course.  You can put a maximum of £50k in and yes, you can have them living in Australia.  If you go onto money saving expert you’ll see a calculator of your likely average winnings.  It’s usually a bit more than interest you will earn in regular savings accounts but the risk is it may be less, even nothing.  

Yes, PBs can be part of a savings/investment strategy, but they should generally be regarded as akin to cash savings, like money in a bank account. They are not really investments. I've never held any and don't intend to.

6 hours ago, Somifar said:

 I believe have a few outstanding tax things to take care of ... having to submit tax returns while overseas for overseas income. It was not a thing when I left Australia and it seem I have a few years where this has been outstanding.
 

Do you mean submit tax returns while overseas for Australian income? A non-resident generally doesn't pay tax on non-Australian income.

Australian tax will generally be payable on earnings from an Australian employer to the extent those earnings relate to duties carried out in Australia, regardless of your tax residence status.

Not sure why you would need to apply get an NI number since that usually stays with you for life.

Surprised there is still anything left that is sub-3m on jersey road. 

You say you are from the UK but then you go on to mention getting a UK work visa that meets the £18,600 salary requirement. If you are a UK citizen you don't require a visa to work there.

If you're looking somewhere closer to town than Kingston or Norbiton, then maybe look at somewhere like Battersea, which is close to Clapham Junction which has trains to both Victoria (for Westminster) and Waterloo (for the City via the W&C line). Should (just about) be able to get a terrace there for sub GBP2m.

If there are moped phone snatchers in Islington then there could be moped phone snatchers anywhere in London tbh.

I have a rule never to invest in regional Australia. 
 

Poor transport, poor infrastructure, no prospect of significant increases in real wages and therefore nothing to increase house prices above that could be obtained in the capital cities. 
 

I would only invest in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

1 hour ago, MacGyver said:

Base level private healthcare, solely to  avoid the Medicare surcharge levy, seems to be pretty useless. So there is an argument (which you might disagree with) that it may be better spent on the Medicare surcharge levy.

 

I don't follow your reasoning here. If the annual premium for base level private healthcare (BLPH), taken out solely to avoid the MSL, is lower than the MLS that would have otherwise have been payable, then you have saved money, and the BLPH is therefore worth it it, regardless of the quality of the BLPH. By avoiding the MSL, you do not restrict your access to the Medicare system in any way.

Whether it is good public policy to effectively encourage the transfer of taxation revenue to the coffers of private health insurers, is another matter.

No Aus tax.

5 hours ago, Parley said:

only if you don't need it or use it.

Even if you do need it or use it, private health insurance will rarely cover everything - there will always almost be some form of co-payment, and it can be a significant sum. Self-funding will almost always work out cheaper in the long run than PHI.

14 hours ago, newjez said:

I've done 45 degrees in Perth Marisa. Perth gets pretty damn hot. Not as hot as the north, but a lot hotter than the eastern states, and I did live in Sydney for five years.

I agree. During summer, Perth probably has the most consistently extreme heat of all the state capitals. Darwin may have slightly higher daily maxima, but it doesn't get the 38C+ days that Perth gets.

Obviously it can get a lot hotter inland, but given that 80%+ of Australia's population live on the coast, it is reasonable to say that Perth is hot by the standards that most Australians experience.

The nearest contender for extreme summer heat in the state capitals is probably Adelaide, which has a similar Mediterranean climate, but even that city record summer maxima c. 2-3 degrees lower than Perth. 

The title of this thread makes me want to weep for the poor kids involved.

4 hours ago, Andrew1980 said:

OK thanks.  So is the employer sponsorship also driven by the open skills list for the state or can an employers sponsored visa be granted regardless of the states listed preferred skills?

 If the big 4, lawyers, consultancies or banks want to hire an overseas national, it will be done. 

You have nothing to worry about.