David Noble

Can anyone help me on these issues ?

We're renting out our house and emigrating.
I am UK domiciled, UK Citizen and so I should be able to keep
my Tax Free Allowance. As I understand it, this means that broadly
speaking I pay only a small amount of tax in the UK and shouldn't have
anything to pay at all in Oz.

My wife is Japanese, never took UK Citizenship and Japanese domiciled.
As I understand it this means that once she becomes Australian
resident,
they can't tax her at all on her UK income. Can anyone confirm this ?

Also, what are deductabe expenses ? I have upgraded a few things
before the tenants took over, can this be offset against tax in a
future tax year. e.g. I got a new fence and repaired the windows.
Also, how much is reasonable for wear and tear ?

If anyone can answer any of these questions, I'd be very grateful,
especially the non-domiciled status.

David Noble.

Jaj

David
It sounds like you are confused about a few important issues:

David Noble wrote:
    > Can anyone help me on these issues ?
    >
    > We're renting out our house and emigrating.
    > I am UK domiciled, UK Citizen and so I should be able to keep
    > my Tax Free Allowance. As I understand it, this means that broadly
    > speaking I pay only a small amount of tax in the UK and shouldn't have
    > anything to pay at all in Oz.

Once non-UK resident you will normally only be taxed on UK source income
by the UK. As you say you will be able to keep a personal allowance and
any tax you are charged should be offsettable against Australian tax (to
avoid double taxation).

However - once you become Australian tax resident, the income will be
taxable in Australia even if you don't remit it to Australia.

For this purpose, your 'domicile' status is not relevant.



    >
    > My wife is Japanese, never took UK Citizenship and Japanese domiciled.
    > As I understand it this means that once she becomes Australian
    > resident,
    > they can't tax her at all on her UK income. Can anyone confirm this ?


As far as I'm aware she would still be taxed on UK source income. I'm
not sure if she would be able to claim a UK personal allowance either -
you need to check the Inland Revenue website.

Her decision to retain Japanese citizenship is a personal one, but if
it's due to concern over losing her Japanese citizenship, it's also
going to be a problem a few years down the line if she looks to take
Australian citizenship. As you're probably aware, there are some
disadvantages to just having PR vs citizenship in both the UK and
Australia, not least the fact that if you move away from the country you
risk losing PR.

Naturalised British citizens do not lose that status even if they
subsequently move somewhere else.

It may be worth your wife writing to the Japanese Embassy to get some
advice on exactly what the nationality consequences of taking British or
Australian citizenship will be under Japanese law, if keeping her
Japanese citizenship is important to her.



    >
    > Also, what are deductabe expenses ? I have upgraded a few things
    > before the tenants took over, can this be offset against tax in a
    > future tax year. e.g. I got a new fence and repaired the windows.
    > Also, how much is reasonable for wear and tear ?


http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk for UK tax
http://www.ato.gov.au for Australian tax.



    >
    > If anyone can answer any of these questions, I'd be very grateful,
    > especially the non-domiciled status.

Most questions concerning domicile are way beyond the scope of
newsgroups to advise on. You need to speak to a professional tax adviser.


Jeremy