jan

Can anyone help with this question ? I have a friend in London who has been granted a P/R visa and hopes to move to Aus. June 2007 .However she is hoping to buy a property towards the end of 2005 in Perth which she hopes to rent out for a year.Is it possible to purchase without living in Aus ?
Does she need a tax file no. before buying?
Does anyone know of any advantages or
disadvantages?
Any advice welcome.
Jan

Siren & Brian

Pressuming she has validated her visa then yes she can buy a property in Perth from London and living in London. I cant see any problems at all and if she is going to live in the property on her arrival then she wont have any capatial gains to worry about either.

Kiwipaul

I agree she won't have any problems buying a house but she will be liable for CGT from the time she buys it to the time she moves into it. You can only claim a property as your principle place of residence (and be free of CGT for 6 years) if you've actually lived in it for a time before renting it out.

PhilShila

Yes she can purchase a property.

She does not need a TFN to make the purchase, but if she is renting it out then she will have to file a tax return at the end of the tax year and declare the income - and for that she will need a TFN.

Best thing is to contact an accountant in Perth and appoint them to represent you. They can apply for the TFN on your behalf and will remind you when tax return time comes around and file it for you. You can claim all sorts of things against tax - for example, if you go out there for a holiday, claim it was to visit your property and you can then claim back the air fare and accomodation against income tax when you eventually make the move. Your accountant will advise.

Can't remember how much my accountant in Melbourne charges - but it's very reasonable compared with the UK.

Another thing to consider is that if you have a UK will, it won't necessarily be valid in Australia, even if you mention your Australian assets in it. if anything happened to you, then your beneficiaries could have a nightmare sorting out assests across two jurisdictions. Get a separate will made in Australia that only covers your Australia assets.

Phil