Moving Back To The UK-Tax Return

[Snowbound]

Hi all. Hubby and I have decided (after a lot of thought) to return to the UK, at least for now. My Dad has recently passed away and Mum is now alone. We plan to go July/August (have already sold our house). We are citizens and would like to remain so should we ever like to return .

My question is regarding tax… if we do not earn any income in Australia beyond 30th June and complete our tax return and advise the ATO that we are leaving…. Would we then need to complete an Australian tax return for the following year declaring UK income. Or…. If we continued working for another month (July) and had to complete a tax return from the UK next year… would we be taxed on our UK income too? Any advice gratefully received. Thank you. 

[Marisawright]

13 minutes ago, Snowbound said:

Hi all. Hubby and I have decided (after a lot of thought) to return to the UK, at least for now. My Dad has recently passed away and Mum is now alone. We plan to go July/August (have already sold our house). We are citizens and would like to remain so should we ever like to return .

My question is regarding tax… if we do not earn any income in Australia beyond 30th June and complete our tax return and advise the ATO that we are leaving…. Would we then need to complete an Australian tax return for the following year declaring UK income. Or…. If we continued working for another month (July) and had to complete a tax return from the UK next year… would we be taxed on our UK income too? Any advice gratefully received. Thank you. 

If you are an Australian citizen, you won't lose your citizenship no matter how long you're overseas for.

My understanding is, it doesn't matter what date you leave Australia and move to the UK.  Whatever day you leave, that's the day you stop being liable for Australian tax and start being liable for UK tax.  So if you leave in, say, December 2024, you'd be liable to pay Australian tax for the period from July to December, and that's it.  Whatever you earn from that date on in the UK has nothing to do with Australia, and vice versa.

I should say, that assumes you haven't left kept any investments in Australia.

[Ken]

2 hours ago, Snowbound said:

My question is regarding tax… if we do not earn any income in Australia beyond 30th June and complete our tax return and advise the ATO that we are leaving…. Would we then need to complete an Australian tax return for the following year declaring UK income. Or…. If we continued working for another month (July) and had to complete a tax return from the UK next year… would we be taxed on our UK income too? Any advice gratefully received. Thank you. 

There is a question on every Australian tax return. Final Tax Return? Yes/No. If you've left the country and no longer have any Australian income, you should answer yes to that question and will not be troubled for another tax return. If you leave Australia in July 2024 then your final tax return will be FY2025, but you'll be entering the date that you left Australia as part of the return and your worldwide income only goes up to that date. Any UK income (or other foreign income) after that date isn't included on the return and isn't taxed.

Similarly, your first UK tax return will run 6th April 2024 to 5th April 2025 but you'll include the date you returned to the UK on the return and won't need to report any Australian income (or any other foreign income) received before that date.

Note that if you still have an interest-bearing Australian bank account, make sure they know you've left the country (provide them with your new address outside Australia) and have removed your TFN from the account details. You'll have 10% withholding tax levied on the interest (which you'll be able to claim on your UK tax return) but won't have any requirement to lodge an Australian tax return if that is your only Australian income. I've had client have to go the expense of lodging Australian tax returns because their bank didn't know they had left the country, and so were reporting their interest and TFN to the ATO triggering the demand for a tax return.

[Snowbound]

Thank you so much for replying. This is so helpful.