Guest onabox Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Hi there! I am looking for some advice/ recommendations/ information about exchange rates, transferring money, tax, recommended companies/ financial advisers to approach, etc etc etc... Our situation is that we are in the process of emigrating to australia. We left the UK early in December but have still yet to touch down in oz as we are taking the opportunity to do a bit of travelling on route. Therefore, we are not yet Australian residents (visa 176) - but, it appears, that we are also no longer UK residents which is making things very difficult! The exchange rates seem to be moving alarmingly in the 'wrong' direction (given that we have our savings etc in sterling and want to transfer to aus dollars). We also have worries about tax etc e.... what can we do/ who can we speak to? Having looked at a lot of websites it seems that we are already 'too late' having already left the UK... is this true Please help!!! All advice gratefully received.
Guest Noodle Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Moneycorp have been very helpful with us and you can set up an Australian bank account on-line (we used Nab). Have a chat with them and explain your situation. Best wishes Leila x
Guest onabox Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Thanks - have tried Moneycorp but they can't help us because we have already sold our house in the UK (so unable to verify ID in UK), and they no longer have an office in Australia (apparently this was closed very recently - which means that they are legally not allowed to deal with Australian residents or something - not entirely sure as we haven't actually become aussie residents yet!).
Guest Noodle Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 There must be someone, keep bumping thread up. x
Guest guest32776 Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Hi there! I am looking for some advice/ recommendations/ information about exchange rates, transferring money, tax, recommended companies/ financial advisers to approach, etc etc etc... Our situation is that we are in the process of emigrating to australia. We left the UK early in December but have still yet to touch down in oz as we are taking the opportunity to do a bit of travelling on route. Therefore, we are not yet Australian residents (visa 176) - but, it appears, that we are also no longer UK residents which is making things very difficult! The exchange rates seem to be moving alarmingly in the 'wrong' direction (given that we have our savings etc in sterling and want to transfer to aus dollars). We also have worries about tax etc e.... what can we do/ who can we speak to? Having looked at a lot of websites it seems that we are already 'too late' having already left the UK... is this true Please help!!! All advice gratefully received. Can you be a bit more precise on which things are 'very difficult'?
Pumpkin Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 What do you mean you are "too late"? Too late for what? It might be easier to assist if you could actually pose some specific questions, for example what specifically do you want to know about tax? You seem to be trying to transfer some money? From where to where? Is money still in the UK? Do you have an Australian bank account set up? Why do you want a financial advisor?
docboat Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 From the perspective of UK residence, I would suggest that the information you have is wrong. You need an address in the UK - probably family member, where you can receive post, and where your driving licence should be registered. You are still a UK resident. Think of it like a resident taking a longer holiday between houses in the UK. As for issues re transfer money - now is a bad time to transfer money to AUS$. I would suggest, if you have the funds, keep the cash in the UK, and use your AUS$ income for the short term in Australia. You will not be buying a house immediately - far better to do that when you know if this is where you want to live, and more particularly which spot in Australia really speaks to you. Ditto for larger expenses - make like a GBP10 pom, and create your life here. The exchange rate should improve (worsen for us) for you in the next months. Re tax. It all depends on your particular questions, as pumpkin says. You can either get some very excellent tax books in Australia or you can find a good accountant, of which this country has an oversupply. If you are in business, you will need your TFN immediately, also your ABN and ACN if you go into business - and then I would strongly adivse you have an accountant to deal with GST and the very strict ATO idiocies. If you are not in business, but employed, then you can lodge your own tax return - the forms are available in newsagents and post offices.
Guest guest32776 Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Thanks - have tried Moneycorp but they can't help us because we have already sold our house in the UK (so unable to verify ID in UK), and they no longer have an office in Australia (apparently this was closed very recently - which means that they are legally not allowed to deal with Australian residents or something - not entirely sure as we haven't actually become aussie residents yet!). Try Oz Forex - I have transferred money back and forth from the UK to Australia several times. Until you actually arrive in Oz you are resident in the UK for tax purposes - had to show no evidence of addresses.
weemster Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Try Oz Forex - I have transferred money back and forth from the UK to Australia several times. Until you actually arrive in Oz you are resident in the UK for tax purposes - had to show no evidence of addresses. Yes - I have used these several times aswell without any discussion of evidence of address.
Guest guest36187 Posted January 1, 2011 Posted January 1, 2011 Alan COllett - agent for Go Matilda is also a good source of help with money issues
Guest onabox Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 Can you be a bit more precise on which things are 'very difficult'? I suppose what has been difficult is trying to sort out our financial arrangements (ie. what to do with our savings & the proceeds from our house, minimising our tax liability, the plummeting exchange rate! etc etc) whilst apparently having become international nomads! That is, that we have left the UK, sold our house and have been travelling/ visiting family abroad on route to Australia, so to date have not yet become australian residents as we havent' touched down on aussie soil yet. So, when i tried to ask Moneycorp for help they refused to give any assistance because we 'no longer owned property in the UK'. I also tried HifX UK but they have referred us to HiFX australia (whom i will ring on monday assuming they are not having a bank holiday). If you look at companies such as 'prism xpat' online they also state that you should make the necessary financial arrangments prior to leaving the UK otherwise "once you have left the UK it is usually too late to act". I have tried to research financial advisors in australia but literally can not seem to get a single name or website....
Guest onabox Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 What do you mean you are "too late"? Too late for what? It might be easier to assist if you could actually pose some specific questions, for example what specifically do you want to know about tax? You seem to be trying to transfer some money? From where to where? Is money still in the UK? Do you have an Australian bank account set up? Why do you want a financial advisor? Its a very good question about the 'too late' issue! And something that i would like to know specifically myself: For instance, if you look at 'prismxpat' website (as an example) and read about their emigration services they state that "As an emigrant from the UK, you should seek advice up to 12 months prior to your departure. Once you have left the UK, it is usually too late to act." Why is it too late to act? What are you too late for? Does anyone know? Secondly tax: There seem to be huge tax implications involved with holding assets abroad (in our case, savings accounts/ house proceeds etc held in UK sterling bank accounts). Can anyone recommend a company/ individual who can give specialist advice related to holding these accounts abroad (and the tax implications in Australia relating to these assets)? Do we need to be concerned about double taxation issues? On a lesser topic - is there anything that we absolutely should do now relating to our pensions? i am currently thinking that pensions will be something we look into in a few years time when we know for sure that we want to stay in oz (as i believe that once you transfer your pension to oz you can not transfer it back again). That said, we are prepared to lose our tax break on that by not doing anything in the first 6 months or weeks or whatever the limit is. But really i am more interested in sorting out our savings at the moment.
Guest onabox Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 What do you mean you are "too late"? Too late for what? It might be easier to assist if you could actually pose some specific questions, for example what specifically do you want to know about tax? You seem to be trying to transfer some money? From where to where? Is money still in the UK? Do you have an Australian bank account set up? Why do you want a financial advisor? forgot to mention that we are trying to move money from the uk to australia. we don't yet have an australian bank account as this appears to be another mine-field of worry with charges to look out for etc... we want a financial advisor to give advise relating to UK assets (money held in bank accounts, savings accounts, child trust funds, pensions, endowment funds etc) and how best to transfer them over to australian accounts without being liable for a load of charges/ tax etc that we could have avoided had we taken proper advice.
Guest onabox Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 From the perspective of UK residence, I would suggest that the information you have is wrong. You need an address in the UK - probably family member, where you can receive post, and where your driving licence should be registered. You are still a UK resident. Think of it like a resident taking a longer holiday between houses in the UK. Thanks - yes this seems sensible. But we tried to open an online savings account with nationwide (after we had left the UK) for an interim savings account while we get set up abroad and we have been unable to do so as they require utility bills or council tax invoice for the 'new address' (ie. my partners mother's address). of course, we dont' have this so can not open the account despite having our driving licences registered to that address. Very frustrating particularly as we had held our mortgage with them for the last 5 years of the house that we had just sold less than a month ago!!!!
Guest onabox Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 Alan COllett - agent for Go Matilda is also a good source of help with money issues Thanks - yes, have contacted alan collett and may well take advantage of his services once we have fully explored all our options!
Pumpkin Posted January 2, 2011 Posted January 2, 2011 You seem very concerned about tax. In fact there are very few tax consequences relating to having money from a house or savings. You are not taxed on money that you bring to Australia. One is only ever taxed on income e.g. from earnings and investment income or perhaps from capital gains, however gains on primary residencies are exempt from tax in both UK and Australia. Who is making a gain on the sale of a UK house these days anyway. So transfering money to Australia, well if you don't have a bank account to transfer money into then you cannot transfer money into Australia. Organise an Australian bank account first, until then, as and when you need money, you will need to use your UK credit and debit cards to pay for things and withdraw money from ATMs. Once you get your Australian bank account set up, then use somebody like Ozforex to move money from the UK bank account to the Australian bank account. They won;t deduct tax, it is not a taxable event, there is absolutely no question that you will be taxed. I think you are seeing tax issues where there are none. :wink: Oh and at the moment, you are not a tax nomad, you are most definitely UK tax resident and will be until the day you land in Australia.
Les Avalook Posted January 3, 2011 Posted January 3, 2011 I think you are seeing tax issues where there are none. :wink: Oh and at the moment, you are not a tax nomad, you are most definitely UK tax resident and will be until the day you land in Australia. I think you should say until you become resident in Oz, until then you will be a UK tax resident.
Alan Collett Posted January 4, 2011 Posted January 4, 2011 I think you should say until you become resident in Oz, until then you will be a UK tax resident. At the risk of being pedantic ... methinks the OP is resident in the UK until the date of departure to reside in Australia, not from the date of arrival in Australia. HM Revenue's form P85 is useful in asserting one's status in this regard: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/p85.pdf Best regards.
Guest Posted January 20, 2011 Posted January 20, 2011 You seem very concerned about tax. In fact there are very few tax consequences relating to having money from a house or savings. You are not taxed on money that you bring to Australia. One is only ever taxed on income e.g. from earnings and investment income or perhaps from capital gains, however gains on primary residencies are exempt from tax in both UK and Australia. Who is making a gain on the sale of a UK house these days anyway. So transfering money to Australia, well if you don't have a bank account to transfer money into then you cannot transfer money into Australia. Organise an Australian bank account first, until then, as and when you need money, you will need to use your UK credit and debit cards to pay for things and withdraw money from ATMs. Once you get your Australian bank account set up, then use somebody like Ozforex to move money from the UK bank account to the Australian bank account. They won;t deduct tax, it is not a taxable event, there is absolutely no question that you will be taxed. I think you are seeing tax issues where there are none. :wink: Oh and at the moment, you are not a tax nomad, you are most definitely UK tax resident and will be until the day you land in Australia. Some really good points by Pumpkin. I might add that we still transfer money from the UK to Aus and we left 3 years ago. If you've got money in the UK, then you can transfer it, its that simple. We now deal with HIFX in NZ and do the transfers that way. The rate that HIFX gave us was the only thing we had to concern ourselves with, there were no additional charges. Admittedly the ex rate is rubbish for moving sterling just now. There is no tax payable on bringing money over, if it is equity from the sale of main residence. To open a bank account here, you will need "100 points". Generally a passport and (Aus) driving licence are the best ways of doing that. Get your Aus licence when you arrive and then open your account... Happy travels Ken
Guest The Pom Queen Posted January 20, 2011 Posted January 20, 2011 Some really good points by Pumpkin. I might add that we still transfer money from the UK to Aus and we left 3 years ago. If you've got money in the UK, then you can transfer it, its that simple. We now deal with HIFX in NZ and do the transfers that way. The rate that HIFX gave us was the only thing we had to concern ourselves with, there were no additional charges. Admittedly the ex rate is rubbish for moving sterling just now. There is no tax payable on bringing money over, if it is equity from the sale of main residence. To open a bank account here, you will need "100 points". Generally a passport and (Aus) driving licence are the best ways of doing that. Get your Aus licence when you arrive and then open your account... Happy travels Ken Hi Ken Thankfully new arrivals do not have to provide the 100 point check as long as they can prove they have just arrived in the country ie passport/visa and sign up in the first 6 weeks.
Jambos Posted July 13, 2012 Posted July 13, 2012 I know this is an old thread but I have been informed that the proceeds of the sale of your main property could be subject to tax i.e for example if you have sold your main property and keep for lets say £300k and you then move to oz and keep your money in the uk hoping for a better ex-rate. Then you would be taxed on the ex-rate difference between the rate as it was when you moved to oz say $1.5 compared to the actual rate you exchanged later on say $1.8. Therefore you are taxed on $90k. Is this correct?
Alan Collett Posted July 14, 2012 Posted July 14, 2012 Exchange rate gains arising on capital deriving from the sale of one's former main residence are likely to be exempt from Australia's forex provisions by virtue of the "private or domestic nature" exemption. Feel able to send me a PM if you would like a link to a Private Ruling in this regard. Best regards.
Eddietopps Posted March 5, 2013 Posted March 5, 2013 Once again I am aware this is an old thread however I would like to think those that have participated in it may be able to offer advice? Did you get good independent financial advice and was it worth it for the transfer of pensions, investments and savings? Any tips, advice and guidance very much appreciated? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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