Retiree wanting to spend more time in UK

[Jack53]

Hi, I have recently retired after living in Australia for 25 years and wish to spend equal time in Australia and UK. Has anyone got any advice on whether this is feasible or not? My main concern is UK / Australian residency? I can rent accommodation in UK for six months but will I be classed as a resident? Also what are problems with keeping a car in UK? Just not sure if worth the hassle. Any advice would be welcome thanks.

[Guest Dave53]

I'd be very interested to hear what responses you get from this . Your plans certainly draw a parallel with my hopes and aspirations too . Are you a dual citizen ? , as such if you are , then I see no reason why you can't have a 50:50 residency ... As a side note , I'm led to believe that if you claim an Aussie aged pension , you can spend up to 6 months away and still claim the pension without penalty ... As I say , I'm more than interested to hear the responses ..

 

Dave C

[Gbye grey sky]

That always sounds like an ideal world scenario and is often mentioned wistfully on the forum. I don't know whether there is anyone on the forum actually doing this though. I suspect that you have to be seriously well off and even then get very good advice if you want to avoid the worst of both countries with regard to pensions and taxation.

 

My suspicion is that the best way would be to choose the country where you are better off with pensions and tax and then keep taking long holidays in the other.

[Chortlepuss]

I would love to do this but struggle to work out which months I'd spend where. April to Sept is sublime in UK and QLD. Jan - Mar grim in both!

[winter1]

One of the considerations will be health care. There is a lot of rhetoric going on at the moment in the UK about health tourists whilst it is not aimed specifically at ex-pats it includes them.

You would be available to access free hospital care for an emergency, however it seems likely the NHS is going to be checking further and there is talk of people having to produce their passport and fill in a detailed questionnaire. The current rules state that you need to show that you have permanent residence of at least 6 months or you intend to stay longer than that before you can access anything other than emergency treatment. Many expats who have moved to Europe are also finding it difficult when returning to the UK. Having Global or specific Health insurance may be necessary.

I know there will be some people who will say that they had no problem but it is a matter of chance with where you are living.

 

here are a some links a couple may be a bit outdated but research is essential before you consider this.

 

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1087.aspx?CategoryID=68&SubCategoryID=162

http://britishexpats.com/articles/uk/expats-nhs/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/10834116/NHS-rejects-expats-returning-from-Spain.html

[Marisawright]

Hi, I have recently retired after living in Australia for 25 years and wish to spend equal time in Australia and UK. Has anyone got any advice on whether this is feasible or not? My main concern is UK / Australian residency? I can rent accommodation in UK for six months but will I be classed as a resident? Also what are problems with keeping a car in UK? Just not sure if worth the hassle. Any advice would be welcome thanks.

 

Here are the rules for deciding whether you're resident or not:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/381705/rdr3_1_.pdf

 

There are several different rules you have to look at. The basic one is to make sure you're not resident in the UK for 183 days. However even if you avoid that, you could still get caught for having a "home" in the UK - if I understand it correctly, you need to be sure you're spending substantially more time in your overseas home than in your UK one. I know you say you're only going to rent, but if you're going to sign a residential lease, I suspect they would regard that as a "home" - a rented flat is home for a lot of people after all! So I'd say five months would be much safer than six months.

 

However I'm wondering if you should worry about being classed as resident? It is perfectly possible to be resident in two countries at the same time and while you'd have the hassle of having to submit two tax returns, there is a double taxation agreement so you may not end up worse off. A consultation with a tax expert like Alan Collett would give you the facts. The advantage of being classed as resident in the UK would be that you would be able to access services more easily.

 

In particular, you mention a car, and I'm sure I've read somewhere about non-residents having terrible trouble getting insurance when purchasing a car in the UK.

 

As for rental - you say you would rent a place for six months. I assume you mean a residential lease and that means, even if you don't actually live in the place, you will have a domicile in the UK for 183 days so if you're worried about being resident, that's an issue. But I'm more worried about whether you'd be able to find a place anyway. Agents don't like overseas tenants because they don't have a credit history they can access. If they do accept them, it's often on the basis of paying the whole six months' rental upfront, or you'll need a UK guarantor. And that's when the person is actually in the country, viewing the property in person - I don't like your chances of arranging a lease from Australia before you leave. If you have to spend the six months in a holiday rental that would be incredibly expensive.