bringing money from real estate sale into Oz

[Guest sherylnco]

Hi there, does anyone out there know anything about bringing money into Oz? I emigrated to queensland in Jan 05 and am now selling my home in the UK (I love it here so much!). Someone has told me that the equity will be taxed when the money gets here. True or false? Sheryl

[Sydney Boy]

If the home you are selling has never been rented out officially, ie it really is your only home then you shouldn't have any capital gains to pay in OZ so you should be OK.

 

If you rented it out for a time , then in theory you will need to apportion part of the "profit" as capital gains , and part for tax free as it was your home. Many expats dont even mention it, but thats up to you !

 

Do your homework on exchange rates as it could save you some money.

I used to get it converted before it left the UK. Phone around as it can change , especially overnight in the UK when it is daytime here. I used First Direct once, and Ozforex another time. The more you transfer in one go the better the exchange rate. Find out the thresholds , you dont want to lose out on another 0.2% if you had only transferred another 10 quid! Ozforex have good graphs so you can track the exchange rates too.

 

http://www.ozforex.com.au/

[idrabble]

If the home you are selling has never been rented out officially, ie it really is your only home then you shouldn't have any capital gains to pay in OZ so you should be OK.

 

If you rented it out for a time , then in theory you will need to apportion part of the "profit" as capital gains , and part for tax free as it was your home.

 

My understanding of the matter is that as long as you have not bought a house in Australia then you get up to 6 years to sell your house in the UK without paying Capital Gains Tax. This is because your property in the UK will still be classed as your main residence but if you have bought another house then it becomes an asset and is liable for CGT.

[Guest scarletsfan]

Wonder if anybody can shed light on this

 

we are hoping to come out to Perth in feb 09 but with the current climate going to have a "friend" rent the house off us so nothing will be declared,

 

if we sold the house after 18 months - 24 months which we are hoping to will i be paying CGT or not we will be renting in Oz until our house is sold.

 

This is 1 of the last stubbling blocks that we have so any help very grateful

[Guest Dave P]

In the same vein I guess - I am part owner with my brother, sister and mum of a house in the UK. My mum (who was living in the house) has now died and we will sell the house. What are the tax implications of bringing in my share of the proceeds? Help anyone

 

thanks

 

Dave

[Guest Liam]

Ok this is from my own personal experience and as it is tax orientated it is not meant to be specific advice but only my general comments based on personal experience. So seek your own tax advice specific to your circumstances.

 

The basic rule is that you do not pay Capital Gains Tax on your main residence so that is the starting point.

 

Under Australian Tax rules you have 6 years after leaving your main residence (home) to sell a property without paying any Capital Gains Tax if you don't buy another home in the meantime. Now if you do buy a home you can then elect to claim the CGT exemption on your first home up to the date you moved in to the new home and then choose to apply the exemption to either of the 2 houses (whichever does have a Capital Gain ...if you are so lucky). Now if you intend to stay in your new home long term you would probably claim the full CGT exemption on your UK home. If you do decide to this I would suggest having a local real estate agent give you a written estimate of your Australian Home on the date you sell your UK Home (make sure and ask for a value for stamp duty puposes..he will know what i mean!). This gives you the difference between the price your paid and the value at the time your new home becomes your main residence for CGT exemption purposes (the idea is to keep this as low as possible in case it is ever needed).

 

There is no tax on the lump sum of money you move to Australia but you may pay some tax on any earnings on those funds while they were sitting in a UK bank account as Aussies are taxed on their worldwide income and there is reporting between UK and Aussie ATO. But if you have paid withholding tax in the UK you will get a tax credit here (basically you can be sure that you will not be taxed twice)

 

Hope this helps and remember to get personal advice on your own tax circumstances.

 

With the way house prices are going in the UK and here , I have a feeling we won't be worrying about Capital Gains tax for a while!

 

best wishes

 

Liam

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

Hi everyone, i hope you don't mind me asking a question about house sale money. When we sell our house we think we will clear at least £150,000. We intend to bank it with the Commonwealth bank, with a view to exchanging it over to Australian dollars when the exchange rate reaches 2.50 again. Heres the question- will the bank charge us for this, if so how much? Thanks for anyones help, cheers jim Balmforth.

[Lanky Lad]

Hi Everybody,

 

Just made a post ..moved to Rentals & Real Estate - for anybody moving to - or in the Sydney Area looking to buy...we just landed a great deal. Basically if you had an half decent terraced in the UK with equity equal to AUD$350k.....

I wont repeat the post....look it up check it out. Its the result of 8 weeks searching for a place to live!