val & Mike Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hi, We have sold our house and are in rented -the money from the house is sitting in a bank here not making alot of interest. The interest rates are quite a bit better in oz and we want to transfer some of it over and make a bit of interest out there it could be another 6 months before we hopfully get there so if we can get a decent exchange rate and earn better interest we think it would be better to do that. My question that i am hoping someone can answer is " will i have to pay tax on the interest it earns out there and how much ? " I have asked this question to a few "professional" people and i still cant get a straight answer. What I dont want to happen is to send it over and find out 6 months down the line the tax i have paid on the interest wipes out the extra money we would make doing this!! Anybody who could help "in layman terms"please ????? Thanks Val x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest prettyinpink Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I was under the impression that if you opened a bank account here whilst you were still in the UK, you would have to come over and 'show your face' so to speak within a few months of opening it. I may be totally wrong but it might be worth checking this out. We still have money sat in our Uk account, just waiting for a more favourable exchange rate before we move it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val & Mike Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 I know with Westpac you have to "show ya face" within 90 days of opening which would be no good for us but apparently the commonwealth you can open account here and u only have to verify the account when you actually get to oz. I was just wondering about the tax on the interest (as this is the proceeds of the sale of our house it is gonna make a bit of interest). In the uk i am not working although o/h runs business so pays higher tax the money is in my name here but we were gonna open a joint account in oz (he must be worried i might go without him!! :biglaugh:l) I dont know whether the interest that the money makes would be liable for tax when we are not living and working over there? Somebody advised us to open an account with HiFx which we have done as apparently you get a better exchange rate than transferring from bank to bank. Any advice would be appreciated thanks val xx:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongrel Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I was under the impression that if you opened a bank account here whilst you were still in the UK, you would have to come over and 'show your face' so to speak within a few months of opening it. I may be totally wrong but it might be worth checking this out. We still have money sat in our Uk account, just waiting for a more favourable exchange rate before we move it. :biglaugh::biglaugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest carkyde Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hi Val not sure if this helps ... we transferred our money in Oct to Commonwealth and we are arriving 11th Feb, have an appointment on 12th to get cards etc. I asked the migrant bank section in London and we have to pay tax on the interest from Oct. We transferred our money into a Commonwealth account in London and watched the exchange rate then phoned and told them to transfer when the rate was good. So far we have made double the amount of interest than we would have in 1 year in the UK. Not sure if this helps you, C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongrel Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I know with Westpac you have to "show ya face" within 90 days of opening which would be no good for us but apparently the commonwealth you can open account here and u only have to verify the account when you actually get to oz. I was just wondering about the tax on the interest (as this is the proceeds of the sale of our house it is gonna make a bit of interest). In the uk i am not working although o/h runs business so pays higher tax the money is in my name here but we were gonna open a joint account in oz (he must be worried i might go without him!! :biglaugh:l) I dont know whether the interest that the money makes would be liable for tax when we are not living and working over there? Somebody advised us to open an account with HiFx which we have done as apparently you get a better exchange rate than transferring from bank to bank. Any advice would be appreciated thanks val xx:confused: You can lodge the money and agree a rate for the money to go with a transfer company but you dont get the interest as its not transferred till the rate is met have to compare flutuations in exchange rate and interest rates CBA you drop your dosh in a uk based ac and they transfer it to your aus ac . Transfer companies make there money out of you depositing in there ac Mally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mongrel Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hi Val not sure if this helps ... we transferred our money in Oct to Commonwealth and we are arriving 11th Feb, have an appointment on 12th to get cards etc. I asked the migrant bank section in London and we have to pay tax on the interest from Oct. We transferred our money into a Commonwealth account in London and watched the exchange rate then phoned and told them to transfer when the rate was good. So far we have made double the amount of interest than we would have in 1 year in the UK. Not sure if this helps you, C. You are taxed up to the nuts here lol Rudd makes Brown look like mother theresa , you will have payed loads as you are judged as being foreign I live here and my meagre savings are hammered every month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val & Mike Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hi Val not sure if this helps ... we transferred our money in Oct to Commonwealth and we are arriving 11th Feb, have an appointment on 12th to get cards etc. I asked the migrant bank section in London and we have to pay tax on the interest from Oct. We transferred our money into a Commonwealth account in London and watched the exchange rate then phoned and told them to transfer when the rate was good. So far we have made double the amount of interest than we would have in 1 year in the UK. Not sure if this helps you, C. hi, thanks for your reply - i will be interested to know when you get out there if you find out how they work out how much tax you pay on the interest (is there a standard percentage for being foreign) We are defo gonna move some monies over because i am worried that at the time of going the rate is bad (our relative who moved over there last year only got 1.9 and it makes a massive difference on alot of money). I think it has to be better out there in a bank than here at the minute. cheers val xx:unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val & Mike Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 You are taxed up to the nuts here lol Rudd makes Brown look like mother theresa , you will have payed loads as you are judged as being foreign I live here and my meagre savings are hammered every month Do you know how we would go about finding out what tax we would pay on X amount of money ??? Do they tax you more when you have an account and dont live there? I cant imagine anyone making Brown look like Mother Theresa lol :biglaugh: thanks val x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davlap Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 if you have no tax file number (tfn) you will be charged 45% tax on your interest. You get a tfn when you are here as a resident. You can claim this tax back at the end of the tax year if the bank charge you when you are resident. But, not sure if you can get back the extra you pay before you become resident. We were charged 45% when we first came here. When we gave bank our tfn they stopped charging (you pay the tax at year end which is July in Oz). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NikiOH Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hi, you need to buy the currency first. We used a company called Hifix (not sure on the spelling) and they are based in Windsor area I think. You can find them in the yellow pages. You don't have to go there in person it can all be done over the phone. When you've got your money, you call them and they give you that days' exchange rate and you decide if you want to buy at that rate or try another day (obviously it can go up or down!!). Then you buy the money and they keep hold of it for you until you tell them where to send it. At the time we were going to SA so called them as soon as we had opened a bank account and they transferred the monies straight away. We have spoken to a number of people out here who used the same company so they are good. Any questions, let me know. Good luck x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa&Martin Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Hi there I have also used HiFX and found them helpful and easy to deal with. Everything done over the phone. I did actually open a Westpac account when in Oz, but was under the impression you could do it remotely. HiFX have good links with Westpac so call them up and ask their advice. You have 2 options for transferring money: (1) as a lump sum OR (2) as a monthly drip-feed. The monthly drip-feed will be taken from your UK bank account by DD and turn up in your Oz bank account about 9 days later. You will definitely get better rates from specialist exchange agencies than you will from the bank, and fewer costs. In terms of exchange rate there is a good graphing system on the Hifx site - go to www.hifx.co.uk, click on the link 'Marketwatch' then click on 'Currency charts', Choose 'GBPAUD' from the drop-down list under the word 'Instrument'. You can then change the timescale to 'Daily' to give you an idea of which way the currency is heading. With regard to tax, you will have to be charged 10% non-resident witholding tax by the Aussie bank whilst you are not in the country. However you have to declare your worldwide income to Inland Revenue in the UK whilst you are still resident here, the 10% you have already paid in Oz will be accounted for (in other words you don't pay UK tax PLUS 10%, you pay UK tax minus the 10% you have already paid in Oz). If you are a non-taxpayer then a single name account may be the way to go in the meantime. Another option would be to transfer the money to OZ and immediately put it into a term-deposit account. These pay a fixed rate of interest at the end of the term. This could mean that your interest payment doesn't actually fall in this tax year in the UK, so nothing to delare in the UK in the meantime! Also bear in mind that Aussie accounts often have account-keeping fees. Westpac current account is $5 per month, you will have to have a current account to have a savings account. Savings interest rates are higher than UK, so overall you should be quids in, if you don't want to lock money away in a term deposit then sometimes Westpac do a special deal on interest rates in an Esaver for the first 5 months of having the account open. A point to bear in mind is that banking is not so free and easy as it is in the UK. I can open an account instantly in the UK online through Barclays, for Westpac you will get a pile of paperwork to complete even when it's just an additional account. There are charges, and some savings accounts have transactions fees for transferring your money out of the account into your cuurent account, or a limited number of free transactions per month. Watch out for these as they will soon eat into your interest if you make a few transfers. I have had no experience of the other big banks but no problem with Westpac either on the phone or online. Hope that gives you a place to start, Best wishes, Lisa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellie2 Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 We used the Commonwealth bank as they have a transfer branch in London, you have to send them in ID and you can open a transfer account. They give good rates on exchanging money the more you have the better rates you get. You can either transfer on the day or wait till a better rate comes along you still get interest whilst it is in the transfer account in London but not as good as you get in Australia. Once you exchange they set up a bank account for you and send you the details. If you are a non resident a 10% tax rate is deducted from any interest paid. Once you arrive in Australia you have to go and activate your bank account with at least 100 points of ID and you will receive your cards, apply for your tax file number as soon as possible after arriving or you will have to pay 45% tax, but this will be paid back as soon as you give the bank your tfn. We have found the Commonwealth bank to be very good and are still with them. Good luck Christine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
val & Mike Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 Hi and thanks to everyone who has posted here to help us it is alot clearer now. I love this website it is great that so many people help each other. thanks to you all again cheers val xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The "legdes" Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi All, We all know that in the UK £35K per person, per owning institution is safe - this rises to £50K if you do certain things too. So how do we make sure we keep our money safe and still are flexible enough to cash into dollars at a day's notice ? And how safe is our money in Ozzie accounts ? Do they have a similar guarantee ? This could be a key factor in deciding what to do and when for all of us. Has anyone had any advice on this ? HSBC are able to open dollar accounts for us but anyone got any bright ideas if we don't use HiFix etc ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa&Martin Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 All deposits protected in Australia for 3 years from 13th October 2008. No cap on amount. See following PDF article: http://www.fixedincome.com.au/AustGov%20Gtee%2013Oct08.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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