hazentim

Hi all, at last we got the good news we were waiting for :-) visa granted date set to leave around late september... but... we've now decided we want to keep the house here and rent it out? Has anyone else done this? we cant be sure this would be the best way financially? we are lucky to have quite a lot of equity in our present home so we'll be able to finance the move and have a sizeable deposit when we find the right home to buy! But if we sell we'll lose the base here in England... What to do??? Any thought would be great :-)

MonkeyBoySteve

With the UK house market slow and exchange rate for Aussie dollar being so poor and you can afford to come without your equity, then keep it and rent it!
But be sure to use a good, reliable agent, who you will be able to sell with, if you decide your going to stay in Aus once you get here and are settled.

Wendy

I'd say the same. Although you may want to get advice about the financial implications of owning a house in both countries - I'm pretty sure that if you sold the one in the UK you would be subject to capital gains tax if it wasn't your main residence, which if you have a house in Australia that you own and live in would put you into that category. So something that you should investigate further

tonychef

hi
we have rented out our house for the past year and it now more than covers our rent here, with the way the housing market is in the uk and here we`ve decided to rent it again for another year, also the exchange rates are`nt that good so we`d rather wait and see !!!!!!!!!!!! as long as you use a decent agent its fine, you dont pay any tax as an overseas landlord and your not taxed on the income here as the house in the uk is your main residence until you buy here ( as far i know )
We are in a similar position with large equity and no mortgage ( £14 month ) but would rather wait until things settle down again !!!!!!!!!!

louie

I think you have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere. UK rental income is taxable in the UK regardless of when the landlord lives, although depending on the amounts involved you may not have any tax to pay as the profit may be covered by your personal allowance.

You have probably signed the forms which permit a UK letting agent to pay you without deducting tax at source, but that is not the same thing at all as not being taxable in the first place. See here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/nr_landlords.htm for more information about the Non-Resident Landlords Scheme.

As far as Oz is concerned, my knowledge of Oz tax is sketchy, but I was under the impression that Oz permanent residents were taxed on a worldwide basis, so that UK rent would also be taxable in Australia. Any tax payable in the UK should be deductible from the Oz tax on the same income. Can any tax professionals confirm or correct this?

tonychef

yes you are correct on the tax issue but as im not earning any other income in the uk and there are 2 of us, it is way below our personal allowance,as we do not rent out a mansion just a 2 bed terrace

And how will they know we have a property abroad in oz unless you tell them
as the money is paid directly into a uk bank account, also the property in the uk is still our main residence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not to sure if this is correct but willing to risk it for now until we sell the house in a couple of years time, as far as i know we have 6 years till we have to pay cgt on this !!!!!!!!!!!

Grayling

Any rental income from a house in the UK is taxed in Australia as part of your worldwide income unless you are on some temporary visas.

Failure to disclose such income is called tax evasion and is a serious offence.

G

tonychef

okay then !!!!!!!!!!!! but as far as im concerned its not as im only renting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and thats the chance im willing to take,also we have not worked for a year, we are making no profit from the rental as it covers our rent here.

If im wrong so be it and il wait for the tax bill !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rockpeblar

This is the same situation we were in last May. Luckily we rented it through a local agent who had an employee who lived next door. Our other neighbour is a policeman and so we haven't had any trouble