Adnams

Oh my goodness what a diverse set of experiences. I know the OH is going to want to move with a job already set up (his field is very niche).
I havent even broached the subject yet of going without one as I kind of know it will get short shrift.
I have also considered the girls and I living in the UK during school term time and returning to the US in the holidays but I dont really see how that can be sustainable in the long term.
Decisions, decisions!

Adnams

Oh my goodness BW, that is brave. But my Oh has always wanted to cross the Atlantic on the QM2 so maybe I should just surprise him one day? Hmmm I was was wondering what to get him for Christmas anyway....

nun

Whether you take a financial hit moving from US to UK depends on an enormous number of factors; job, location and relative tax rates etc.

I don't really get the exchange rate argument as that also is predicated on relative costs between the US and the UK and waiting for rates to swing one way or another instead of living your life is a fools game.


Whether the OP leaves money in the US will depend on the nature of the accounts, are they retirement or after tax, and tax will have to be planned for and things like I-407s and 8854s potentially filed and also SS taken into account ie make sure you have 40 quarters of SS credits.

In my case I'm 51 and have lived in the US for 25 years and I'm planning on retiring back home to the UK. I've looked at the costs and I'm better better off in the UK. I estimate it will take between $5k and $10k in moving costs. That's for a container, flights, hotels and initial setup in the UK. I'll be moving form a fairly expensive area in the US to the North east of England so the cost of living is less, taxes will be slightly less for me in the UK mostly because of the lower council taxes and obviously the big saving is health care.

Finally, anyone thinking of moving from the US to the UK that has a US ROTH IRA can use it to get tax free growth and tax free income in both the US and the UK so that is a US account that's worth hanging onto.

MrMuffin

I think it's so important for my kids to have better access to their grandparents and cousins over in the UK. Unfortunately my OH's family aren't really family people and they only get together three or four times a year. They don't makes plans to see the kids here and there as they are always too busy and caught up with themselves, so we go for months without seeing them. And then they wonder why the kids take a while to warm back up to them??

As for your question about a property manager, yes we will be using one. We have a good friend who lives right across the street. He's a property manager for his own 6 or 7 properties and is also an attorney. So one of my (many) jobs is to button down the house before we go so it's as close to maintenance free for 5 years or so... we just had a new roof and right now I'm painting the exterior. I'm hoping that we can get 5 years of minimal outflow with bits of maintenance and upkeep here and there that the property manager can do himself and charge us for time/materials. I'm planning on leaving a few months worth of payments here for periods between renters and will top that up as necessary. He's great at finding good tenants for himself so hopefully we'll get lucky too.

I haven't even started looking into tax ramifications yet but I'm sure there will be some. We pay property taxes along with the mortgage so that's all set. I'm having a meeting with him next week to discuss the whole thing. I am expecting to pay about one-months rent per year extra for his time and trouble. I'll plan on coming back out to the USA to help with any major maintenance that is needed in 4 to 6 years and then again to prep the house before we sell. The aim is to sell it in 10 to 12 years depending on how the market is at the time. Obviously if the market swells at a certain time then we may opt to sell then and cash out. We shall see...

Pit Bull.

I think anyone coming back to the UK from Australia who has been there for several years and was buying a property there, will have seen the price of it sky rocket and then with the exchange rate being like it is, they could have made a packet, Australia must have been good for a lot of people who have come back, I would have thought, if they had managed to buy several years ago.

nun

You'll have US income, expenses and deductions. So a 1040 and a Schedule E. Depending on your UK residency status and whether you can use the remittance basis you might also have to do a self assessment for HMRC so a SA100 and SA106. When you sell you'll have capital gains to deal with for both US and UK.

MrMuffin

It's all good fun this, isn't it?

dunroving

Funny, I was thinking a similar thing - maybe being poor in retirement will have its advantages.

MrMuffin

The only reason we are talking about hanging onto the house and renting it out is because prices are so low right now. But I can only imagine all the crapola we'll have to go through with taxes (as Nun pointed out) and then capital gains etc. I'll have to start another thread on this topic and see what others have done in the past. It's all so bewildering... so many details tied to other details. This is the exact reason I've talked myself out of moving home so many times before but I'm determined to make it happen his time, once and for all.

Adnams

Bewildering, befuddling and bamboozling! I didn't think it would so complicated to leave, it wasn't half this complicated arriving in the US!!

robin1234

Makes me think the US is a bit like a Roach Motel. "Roaches check in, but they don't check out!" (I'm joking, of course.)

nun

Dealing with the taxation of the income from rental in the US won't be a big issue. You'll declare your US income on a 1040NR (assuming you aren't US citizens) and pay the US tax due. Then you declare that income on UK tax forms and take a US tax credit. The actual income might be different because of different exemptions and deductions in US vs UK.

Almo

Absolutely. We are in a much better financial position than we would have been had we stayed in the UK.

MissBetty

I've been in Oz for nearly 5 years now and when I first came here I earnt roughly the same as I did in the UK. For the past 3 years however, I have worked at remote single officer stations (paramedic) and I literally earn double what I do in the UK.

I work an 8/6 roster which means I start at 0800 on Thursdays work til 1800 then I go 'on call' until 0800 on Fri I do this right through til 1800 the following Thurs, 178 hours straight on duty - its exhausting! I get paid double time for every call out so last year I earned $106,000 which is roughly £68,000. In the UK as a paramedic with nearly 20 years in I'd earn £34,000.

I will take a massive financial hit when I return to the UK next year but I will be back with my family again and working for myself doing contract work for the NHS plus private work. I'm just saving like mad atm so I can relax a bit once I am home and take some courses which will help me apply for work in the private sector. I am getting older and don't want to be doing such long unsocial hours forever as I know it will take a toll on my health eventually - no amount of money is worth that let me tell you!

The cost of living in very high in Oz IMHO so I am sure it will all pan out eventually. I'm looking forward to buying a half decent car without having to sell a kidney to pay for it

At the end of the day I've never been so well paid and I live in an amazing house with a pool by the beach but honestly, I've never been so miserable, tired, fed up and lonely in my life. When it comes to money matters my personal opinion is that as long as you have enough to live on comfortably then health, happiness and family is what really counts

Adnams

You said it, health, happiness and family and that is "wealth" enough. Thank you Miss Betty for putting it all in perspective. xxx