Pollyana

Bit of financial info needed please, if anyone is in the know.....

Money in an Aussie Super fund, me moving back home on retirement (as a dual citizen). I will have no links left to Aus except for the Super fund. Plan is to move the money into the Super fund's Income Account and draw on it at intervals, probably every few months, to live on in the UK (transfers to the Uk are sorted, no need to factor that in).
So - first question is, will I need to continue doing Aus tax returns? I will not be tax resident here and will have no contact with the country beyond the Super account.
Secondly, do I have to do a UK tax return each year to declare the Aussie Super, as it will be my income, alongside the UK pension. I don't expect to have any other income.

Alternatively, I will have the option to withdraw all my Super before I leave Aus, as I will have retired and met all the conditions. So it could be moved as a lump sum to the UK, and then invested into some account somewhere to give me a steady income over there, alongside my pension, thus cutting all ties with Aus.

Obviously I'm going to look at some proper financial advice before D Day, but I'm trying to piece together the basics first, especially as I'm not talking about a fortune, just an average fund. And I appreciate stuff can change over the next couple of years but I have to start planning sometime!

Any thoughts are welcome, I don't have a financial brain at all so am very grateful for any pearls of wisdom!

durham_lad

Hopefully someone with more direct experience will chime in but here are my thoughts as a US/UK citizen that moved back to the UK 3 years ago.

I believe the US and Eritrea are the only 2 countries in the world that tax based on citizenship so I think that the year you move back to the UK will be a "split year" meaning you will be taxed by Australia for the part of the year you had income while residing in Australia and the UK will tax on the remaining part of that year. After that first year I don't believe you will be taxed by Australia, unless there is some Tax Agreement that says Australia has taxing rights on your Super withdrawals.


The UK taxes on worldwide income so I think you will be taxed by the UK on your Super withdrawals and will need to do a self assessment return each year since you have foreign income. Once again this is unless there is some Tax Agreement that says Australia has taxing rights on your Super withdrawals.

We have foreign pensions including the US State pension (SS) and have to pay UK tax on those meaning we do file a self assessment each year. Doing a self assessment online is pretty straight forward after the initial process of getting set up to do so, so nothing really to worry about. Hopefully your Super is taxed in the UK and not Australia otherwise that means doing 2 tax returns each year as we have to do with the US.

Pollyana

Yep, that makes sense I know I don'tget taxed by both s I'm hoping after the first year (or part of) I can dumppthe Aussie tax return.
Thats the bit I was really unsure about, how the UK knows I have income from Aus. I'll have a look into the self-assessment forms - never had to do one before I emigrated, so that side of things back home is all new to me!
I think once I cease to be a tax resident of Aus thats the end of it - its not like the US where you still have to do tax returns wherever you are living; the info I've seen sfar, plus your comments me,make me think it will just be taxed in the UK so this gives me a start anyway. I guess I might have to be careful how much I transfer each year to make sure I stay in a low tax bracket - one of the things I need t findout is whether I will lose a heap of the money if I shift it all back in one go when the exchange rate is favourable!

Thanks!!

durham_lad

There is probably an inter governmental organization (IGO) between Australia and the UK where each country would inform the other of pensions being paid so i certainly would not try and fib to HMRC that your worldwide income does not include a Super pension from Australia.

Note that it does not matter when you transfer money to the UK, but when you receive the income. For example I take distributions from my US equivalent of a Super plus my US pensions. I report and pay UK tax on the gross income received during the year even if I don't transfer all of it to the UK. My US income goes into our US bank account and I periodically transfer funds to the UK which may be more or less than the total income received.

Pollyana

Ah ok, so it doesn't matter if I withdraw the money into a UK account or an Aussie one, I just declare it at the time its withdrawn and I can then leave it in whichever I want, and I would get taxed on whatever the amount is that I've withdrawn from the actual Super fund,

Starting to get a bit clearer now!!

durham_lad

Exactly.

HMRC publishes exchange rate conversions that you can use to convert AUD to GBP. Just Google HMRC Exchange rates and you will get a list of sites like this
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...r-2019-monthly

ianandhelena

This is the legislation:

https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Inter...ting-Standard/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Reporting_Standard