Amklive Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Hi All, First post - We are seriously thinking about moving back to the UK in June after 4.5 years here (citizenship gained) and wanted to get some advice. We own a house in Sydney and intend to sell it prior to moving back (to allow purchasing our house in UK). Are there any tax implications on moving approx $350k back to the UK for our new house deposit? I had thought (probably utterly naively) that we could move it using OzForex and have no tax to pay - Any advice or help gratefully received! Kindest regards, Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simonrbh Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Hi Al Can't advise but I'm interested in your post as I'm thinking of doing the same. Your reason to move back? Simon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amklive Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 2 minutes ago, Simonrbh said: Hi Al Can't advise but I'm interested in your post as I'm thinking of doing the same. Your reason to move back? Simon. HI Simon, A number of reasons: 1) Capitalisation on the Sydney house prices - Think this will be as good as they get for a while and I want to sell now whilst the going is good (before interest rates increase). We've owned the same house for a few years now. 2) Strong AUD vs GBP - allowing us to maximise our take-home amount - I can only see the GBP getting stronger over the next 12 mths.......... 3) Eldest is 11yo and Northern Ireland has excellent FREE Grammar schooling, and its the right time to move him and our 8yo home to minimise distruption. 4) The thought of being mortgage free at 42 in a really nice house with no school fees and both our salaries being pretty-much disposable appeals immensely. What's made you think about moving back? Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robfromdublin Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I'm a way off doing something similar but I'm interested in your comments about tax. What tax would you have to pay? I would have thought that simply exchanging money does not require you to pay any tax? Have you heard differently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amklive Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 Also family and great friends, great golf (and mountains), being able to watch sport at the right time, being able to go to a real pub. I love Sydney - we live in the Bilgola/Avalon area on the Northern Beaches and I love the climate and the people etc I'd give it up and embrace the cold again for all of the above! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amklive Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 3 minutes ago, robfromdublin said: I'm a way off doing something similar but I'm interested in your comments about tax. What tax would you have to pay? I would have thought that simply exchanging money does not require you to pay any tax? Have you heard differently? No, I just know that HMRC don't need much incentive to try and take money off you. I want to be in full knowledge of the facts before I pretend to be ignorant of them! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laursylau Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Hi Al, We live in Melbourne and have done for 6 years. We're also considering moving back to UK to be close to family. We love the climate here and the beauty however we're still drawn to home especially after having a little girl. RE money, I originally transferred all my money from UK to Australia (silly me) and was never asked or expected to pay any tax. There is a double tax agreement between the two countries. The UK will not charge us tax on money we've already paid taxes on in Australia. Re selling, we only bought our house a year ago so we'll need to hold onto our place for a while as we'll most probably only get our money back on it. I also feel that if things don't work out in UK, we can always come back to UK and move into our home again. We wish you all the luck with your move. Laura & Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robfromdublin Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 26 minutes ago, Amklive said: I want to be in full knowledge of the facts before I pretend to be ignorant of them! Maybe call the ATO and HMRC? I'm almost certain there would be no tax to pay (as long as it's your principle place of residence) but there are plenty of people active on the site who will have moved back to the UK and could tell you for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amklive Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 28 minutes ago, Laursylau said: Hi Al, We live in Melbourne and have done for 6 years. We're also considering moving back to UK to be close to family. We love the climate here and the beauty however we're still drawn to home especially after having a little girl. RE money, I originally transferred all my money from UK to Australia (silly me) and was never asked or expected to pay any tax. There is a double tax agreement between the two countries. The UK will not charge us tax on money we've already paid taxes on in Australia. Re selling, we only bought our house a year ago so we'll need to hold onto our place for a while as we'll most probably only get our money back on it. I also feel that if things don't work out in UK, we can always come back to UK and move into our home again. We wish you all the luck with your move. Laura & Lee Thx Laura & Lee! Having citizenship means that If we can buy a GBP450-500k house outright in NI, then we can sell again in X years and still be able to buy back in.........Providing house prices in Sydney don't keep increasing at their current rate!! This safety-net is keeping me sane at the moment! Rob, I hope you are right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 We're in a similar situation, we've been in Sydney for eight years and have decided to head back, in part because eldest daughter is due to start high school here in Jan/Feb and we feel we need to move before she gets into the high school system. We're moving to Scotland because OH has been headhunted by a company there who have created a position for him and who are being REALLY flexible about start date etc, and the opportunity is too good to pass. It'll mean that daughter goes from mid-way through year 6 back to the start, but she has Asperger's and some anxiety problems so I think it'll do her good to have some breathing space for a while. We spoke to our accountant a few weeks ago, and the only tax we will have to pay is capital gains tax on OH's business sale. She said that providing our house is our main residence and we've not been letting it out, we won't have any capital gains on that. I'm assuming that's correct. She does all of our tax returns and has for many years, so she's aware of our situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amklive Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 Thanks LKC. Exactly what I was looking for! We moved here after 10 years in Murrayfield in Edinburgh and I'm a Scot. I love Edinburgh and my choice would've been to move back there or St Andrews but OH (I assume that's other half) is a Belfast Lass who is very close to her mum. That settled that. We sold our Edinburgh house late last year after renting it for 4 yrs and haven't been pestered for CGT on its sale (reckon we're fine on that score, as it most likely didn't increase much since Apr 2015). So looks like we'll be able to use the proceeds from Edinburgh & Sydney to set up shop in NI without fear of the tax man calling! Thanks again and if you need/want advice on Edinburgh just ask! al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simonrbh Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 On 4/3/2017 at 3:40 PM, Amklive said: HI Simon, A number of reasons: 1) Capitalisation on the Sydney house prices - Think this will be as good as they get for a while and I want to sell now whilst the going is good (before interest rates increase). We've owned the same house for a few years now. 2) Strong AUD vs GBP - allowing us to maximise our take-home amount - I can only see the GBP getting stronger over the next 12 mths.......... 3) Eldest is 11yo and Northern Ireland has excellent FREE Grammar schooling, and its the right time to move him and our 8yo home to minimise distruption. 4) The thought of being mortgage free at 42 in a really nice house with no school fees and both our salaries being pretty-much disposable appeals immensely. What's made you think about moving back? Al Hi Al I only moved over in October 2014, mainly for a lifestyle change. We settled in my OH's home town, where she was brought up for her first 22 years. I've struggled to get a job and hence disposable income is not in abundance and social interaction is non-existent. I used to work for a Global company in the UK and took redundancy after 23hrs. I've applied for hundreds of jobs and in all my time here I've only had one 12 month contract for 24hr pw that ended June last year. I've tried things like the local Mens Shed (woodworking is not what I'm looking for) and looked at different groups on Meetup (distance to meet ups an issue as the tend to be 55km away in Brisbane CBD). All this has lead to me feeling totally isolated, with my only mates 1000's of kms way in WA and SA (can't afford trips there). I find country folk have a different mindset and Aussies in general don't seem to want to interact like in the UK, strong meaningful friendships are a myth. So in a nutshell, the lack of a job and rural living means purse strings are tight and no social interaction.....and my OH is happy as a pig in ****! It's not been a lifestyle change for the better but it's certainly been a lifestyle change! Simon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KTM1963 Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 I sold my property in Melbourne recently and just arrived back this week after having a year back in the UK. Settlement 9 March 2018 so madly clearing out, and only back for a short time. Profit from house sale isn't taxed if your principal home. Checked with my accountant and ATO. Lived in Oz nearly 28 years but love being back in the UK (Worcester). Work easy to find, everything working out really well and so much happier. Has anyone transferred large sums of money recently? I will probably use Torfx as their rate is higher than the banks and free to transfer and have been transferring small amounts to my UK bank account for a couple of years with no issues Just a tad anxious as my whole life is wrapped up in this one transaction. Any advice greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simonrbh Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Hi KTM, We used TorFX when we sold our house and emigrated to QLD in 2014. Everything went very smoothly. I understand your concerns re:huge amount of money (in excess of £500K), I had the same apprehensions. I had a trip back to the UK in late 2016 and used them again to transfer money over to the UK for the trip, no issues again. I intend to use them again when I return to the UK permanently. 'Work easy to find' - What is your line of work? Feel free to send me a private message. I'm keen to head back to the UK but require work to fund a roof over my head! Cheers Simon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KTM1963 Posted April 27, 2018 Share Posted April 27, 2018 Hi all, I returned to the UK last Feb 2017 to test the waters after nearly 28 years living in Australia (Melbourne). Love it. Got a job straight away (finance) put my unit in Melbourne on the market last December 2017 and sold quickly with the settlement last month. Transferred profit with Torfx, brilliant customer service and struck as the rate was high and no tax implications at all as long as it was your primary place of residence and not an investment property. Just finalised my final tax return and will get a decent refund and only worked July 2016 to Feb 2017. Have my Super there but can access at 59. Hope this helps. I had felt unsettled for several years and so glad I did it. (Single, no ties, so easier). Europe on the doorstep is a bonus and living in a small city again (Worcester) is fab. Waiting for a date on house I have bought. Mortgage free too! Way to go! 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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