fionna321

Hi All,

First post so please excuse if I mess up

OH and I moved down under about 8 months ago. The long term plan is to have Mum and Dad over here on a CPV.

Mum and dad want to send money over here.

1. If they transfer money here, to our bank account, do we land up paying any taxes in Australia?

2. Is there a limit on how much they can send?

3. Could they use that money to buy a house here in their name?


We are here as PR's and they will soon be apply for a Visitor visa.

really looking forward for inputs...a fab forum.

fionna321

Bermudashorts

No you won't pay tax on money transferred, only on any interest subsequently earned on it if it is in your bank account.

They could always open their own bank account in Australia if they really want to transfer money of course. But if they are not planning to move for a while, not sure why they would transfer money now, not like there is a good exchange rate to take advantage of.

They would need to get permission from some foreign investment body to buy a house. What would happen if they bought a house but didn't get the visa for whatever reason?

Mummy3

intersting about the tax, are savings better off in an australian bank account or UK?

fionna321

Bermudashorts..thanks a ton!

another question..

They are also wanting to help us too with buying our first house, so do we pay any taxes (gift taxes) if they want to gift us that money?

fionna321

Also just to add to my introduction..we have moved from the States...

Mummy3

Welcome! where are you in Australia?

fionna321

Sydney.. North Sydney..

Bermudashorts

I am sure there is no such thing as a gift tax in either country. The tax implications of them gifting you money would be a matter of UK inheritance taxes and would come into play if they were to unfortunately expire within 7 years of making the gift.

Paul2O

Don't want to hijack the thread, but can I ask a CPV-related question? How do you intend to pay DIAC AUD 80,000? I don't think most credit cards have a limit that high. I doubt that DIAC accepts personal check. So, it must be a cashier's order?

fionna321

Parents will be paying for it. We just got recently married plus the move, so they don't want us to pay.

renth

They can gift you as much as they want there is no tax on gifts. However, it does count as "assessable income" when it comes to calculating eligibility for stuff like family tax benefit etc...

abi31

Hi All

I'm bumping this one back up to the top cos I would like to clarify the 'tax on transferring cash in' thing.

I think I knew that you don't have to pay tax on income from a house sale, but thought that there may be tax implications on the interest if you had left the money in an account for a while accruing large amounts of interest (I know, funny huh?)

But I thought that there were limits on how much you could bring in before you had to pay tax - is this not so? Or is it only not so if you can prove tax has already been paid (like P45/60s etc)?

Say you brought £30k in $ in and then 6 months later brought an additional £15k in and then maybe a year later £25k - I think there's a government agency you have to notify? But is there also any evidence you have to provide to prove everything's legit (it would be but evidence is a pain ) - and, as mentioned, is there any tax?

Thanks guys

Kiwipaul

Their is NO tax on money transferred to or from Oz (unless you are doing it as a business and playing the exchange rates to make money).
You MIGHT only have to prove where the money came from and it was legit if you transferred it in huge amounts in cash or it came from a known doggy bank in Nigeria say.
Any western bank (as in Europe, USA, etc) transfer will complete with no problems, unless it is from a known drug trafficking (money laundering, etc) account and then you might have problems.
Their is NO agency you have to notify as their are billions being transferred every day and they would be swamped with paperwork. I suspect they monitor certain known suspect accounts and have monitoring programs looking for anomalies but for 99.999% of transfers their will be no problems.

KJCherokee

As long as all necessary taxes have been paid on the money in the UK there is no tax on transferring it to Australia. When we settled up my late father's estate my brother as executor paid the necessary death duties/estate tax or whatever: my share was then sent to my bank account and I had no tax liability on it.

abi31

Thanks KP and KJC - sets my mind at ease - I'd read some dodgy info - google isn't all that really

Luckily my money laundering account is highly secretive so it's all good