UK house rented while living in Oz

[Ken]

On 02/09/2018 at 20:59, Marisawright said:

I suggest going to Centrelink and getting that over with first.   Take your figures with you - what you get in rent plus details of all the expenses you pay for the property (mortgage, agent's fees etc).  It's up to them to calculate what it all comes to and how it affects your benefits.

You could go to an accountant first and wait for him to give you an idea what the outcome will be, but what good will that do, really?   Centrelink will still want to do their own calculations and every day wasted is another day you're in the wrong.  

Also make an appointment with an accountant, to get your tax sorted out.  If the rent is your only income you may find you've got nothing to pay but there will be tax returns to file.  

No, there won't necessarily be any tax returns to file. If total income (including UK rent) is below the threshold and no Australian withholding tax has been paid then a tax return is not required (and you can just tell the ATO that without filling out a return - which is possibly what DogLover in WA's hubby did for her although he should still have put his spouse's income on his own tax return - but his tax return is his problem). The problem for DogLover in WA is Centrelink. You do have to tell Centrelink about what they call "Target Foreign Income" which is any Foreign Income not on your Australian Tax Return.

Note for those who do both file a tax return and claim Centrelink that if you have any Foreign Income that is on your Australian Tax Return make sure you include it as Australian Income and not as Foreign Income on your Centrelink forms or they'll count it twice when they swap your estimated Australian Income with the figure on your tax return that they get from the ATO.

You're right that it would be a waste asking an Accountant about how much needs to be repaid to Centrelink. Centrelink work on the 'black box' approach. You provide them with the figures of your earnings and assets and the 'black box' spits out a number they will pay you. It's almost impossible to check if it's been calculated correctly or not as (unlike the ATO) they don't provide details of how it's calculated as they don't want people to learn the optimal amounts to report. Despite this there have been many cases in the press where the black box has got it wrong and overpaid people but Centrelink hasn't hesitated to demand back the overpayments as if the payee should have known they were getting overpaid.

Edited June 14, 2019 by Ken