YoungOne21

Hello everyone,

I would appreciate your thoughts regarding selling our home after we arrive in Australia. My employer is currently looking at sponsoring me options on either 186 or 482 visa.

Ideally I would like to keep our UK home and rent it out until my family are willing to consider the move ‘permanent’ but equally I don’t want to expose myself unnecessarily to capital gains taxes.

Appreciate for the eagle eyed the 482 is not a permanent visa and would require a transfer to 186. Also overseas assets are exempt whilst on this visa. But how about the 186 visa, would this create CGT complications if the house was sold after becoming a permanent resident?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this topic.

Greg

Beoz

Would CGT be payable on the entire length of ownership or just the time you rented it out? If the entire length then probably best to sell. But if just the time you rented it out then treat that time like a property investment.

YoungOne21

Thanks for the comment back, I certainly hope it works that way for the differential period. It would be slightly upsetting to start paying tax on tax free gains (if I simply remained a UK resident). Would be interested to hear if anyone reviewed a similar scenario and their resulting actions?

Dorothy

If you're coming on a temporary visa, then IMO don't sell your home. Temporary means just that - the visa will have an end date and unless you can find a way to stay, you're going back.

It's also quite possible you'll get here and find that Australia just isn't what you thought it would be. Your family may not settle and want to go home, you could hate your job and decide to leave, any number of things can happen in the first few years so it's good to have something to return to if the need arises.

christmasoompa

Not sure about Australia, but you'd potentially have to pay CGT on gains made since 2015 in the UK, depending on when you sold. https://www.gov.uk/tax-live-abroad-sell-uk-home

Pulaski

You should look at how much of an unrealised gain you already have tied up in your home, and calculate a worst case scenario how much tax you'd actually pay. You will need to include an estimate of any tax that might be assessed in Australia.

If you stand to pay £0,000's in tax then you should consider selling, However if:

• your home isn't worth much more than you paid for it
• and/or you don't expect it to increase dramatically in value (yeah, I know that is an unknowable quantity),
• and/or the amount of tax potentially due is not significant to you,

then the potential cost might make it worth keeping your home, but that is a subjective decision that nobody can make for you.

YoungOne21

Thanks everyone for thoughts and input. I think next step is for a tax advisor to provide some feedback. It would be ‘slightly’ depressing situation if I was paying tax on what typically would be a tax free gain!

Kennysgirl

Hi
I moved over to live in Australia 20 years ago and am an HR professional working at senior levels often with folk who come over on a temporary work visa for 4 years. I can only generalise in my comments but they are based on my varied, diverse and long HR and management experience over here.
The employment environment is very different from the UK. As a 4 year visa employee you are supposedly treated as a normal employee but this is not always so it has been my experience that the first people to leave an organisation in rough times are temporary visa employees. The number of times I have seen this happens are multiple and for various reasons or excuses.
if you cannot secure alternative employment you have a month to get yourself together and return to UK. It depends very much on the company and a multitude of other variables as to how you fair.
Remember small companies have an 12 month minimum employment guarantee period large ones 6 months whereby I have seen many people let go because they don’t work out for different reasons. Additionally I have seen many people return to UK as they can’t settle. Bullying in companies is rife - harsh but true.
I would act with caution.
I would also countenance my advice with the addition comment that personally I have never regretted one single day of moving here. I love it here and Australia has given me opportunities I would never have been able to realise in the UK.
Just remember that there are many issues to resolve in your thinking before you make any decisions and be sure it is the right one for employment, personal, tax and social reasons.