Joskin

It's really good to hear the views of people who are coming back to the UK as well as those who are leaving. At the moment we are really fretting over emigrating. To be honest she is more keen than I am. We've been t o OZ before and loved it. But I enjoyed as a holiday, my wife saw something more. She's a hot weather person while I like my four seasons. But the reason I'm seriously considering going is not sunny days or sandy beaches, it's the way my quality of life has in the uk has drastically gone down hill. I'm self employed, I have been in business all my working life (am forty now) but I have never felt as miserable about being self employed as am now. I'm being taxed more now than I have ever been taxed before yet I am earning less money I have a mountain of red tape, health safety issues, different licenses, enviroment agency rules and regs as well as the local council jumping incesantly up and down on my back Believe me it really is that bad. And what makes it worse as far as I'm concerned is the fact that most of these new laws and regs are coming via Brussels Tony Blair and his cronies are making my life a bloody misery...and all because I want to leave something behind for my kids when I die. Trouble is I'm English born and bred...and I still love the old country.

dotty

I am not being funny or trying to make your mind up for you, but please believe me every one of the things like red tape, council, liabllity, health saftey etc are impossilby hard to work with here too. It has become a total nightmare the last 3 years.

Tax, very high personal income tax rates in OZ 48,5% over a mere 62,000. A genuine company can pay 30% tho, (no levels thats on every dollar) but take into account the costs and liabilities of running a company and anyone sees that is not an easy fix.

The only way I could sum up OZ is you need a piece of paper to do anything. I honestly doubt tho, that many of these issues are going to be much different in the age of Liability anywhere in the western world, I think thats just it now.

All I can say really is you need to take a good research trip into OZ specifically for what you plan to do and find out what rules and regulations taxes etc are going to apply. Dont just assume it will be better, it could be worse

Joskin

Dotty
Thanks for that. If we do decide to go to Oz, we won't be taking our existing business with us, so we need to decide what our new venture will be - a business visa is our only hope as neither of us qualifies as 'skilled'. I guess that if we stay or go, there's no escape from the red tape and legislation - maybe it just seems easier to take when the sun shines?
Regards
Paul and Abby

dotty

Actually I find red tape even more irritating when I am hot and sweaty for half the year


Seriously tho, OZ has some brilliant opportunites for business openings. There is just so much improvement, modernisation, upgrading needed of just about anything you can think of. I cant believe most people coming out seem to be looking for jobs, stuff that get a business.

MikeStanton

Dotty's summed it up very well.

I used to run a small (5 people!) consultancy business. I've done it both in Oz and UK. There isn't much to choose between them in terms of red tape. Except the tax kicks in more aggressively in Oz.

As somebody else has said - same shit, different bucket!

My apologies if you have already done so, but I would strongly advise you to try and change your immediate cicumstances first, before considering emigration - emigration can be a good solution ot it might just provide a different backdrop to the same problems.

If you're not sure, and your wife insists on going to Oz, why not try it for 6 months? Is that possible?

Eg you could go on a holiday visa (3 months+3 months renewal). Go there and investigate relevant business opportunities, then decide. Just don't sell your house! Renting in Oz is cheap at the moment.

HiddenPaw

well, i cant comment on the taxation aspects of running a business in Oz. But as regards quality of life, what is it that makes up your quality of life? You need to identify what, outside of work and business, makes you happy? And will you find it in Oz? Do you like overseas travel, weekends away, theatre, arts, BBQs, gardening, exercising outdoors, sport, restaurants, pubs, beaches, cities, greenery, etc etc. Think about this lifestyle you want and then get to work on whereabouts in Oz you can achieve what you are looking for. Each city/state/environment is different. Lots of people go to Oz and find their dream. Lots of people go to Oz and realise that it doesn't fulfill their basic desires. The experience is different for everyone. On the one hand, you need to live it to understand it, but on the other, you can at least see if it meets a basic set of criteria in the first instance.

Which part are you thinking of going to?

Joskin

We're thinking of the Gold Coast, I really liked Coolangatta as far as a place to live is concerned but obviously we would be prepared to go wherever is best for the business (whatever that might be!).
The comment about changing the situation here as far as my husbands business is spot on!! He's finding work more and more frustrating but won't do anything about it!!! I guess he thinks it's fear of the unknown and better the devil you know etc. I think that life's too short and God gave us roots to know where we come from and wings to see where we can go!! (maybe I'll take up writing birthday cards!) As you can tell I'm a lot keener to change things and don't want him to do it for the wrong reasons - it has to be a joint decision. But waiting around for a guilt-edged guarantee aint gonna happen!

Respect to you guys who have taken the leap, whether successfully or not, at least you have tried and had a life changing experience (sorry, I hope I don't sound too bitter and twisted

HiddenPaw

Nothing ventured nothing gained. Agree that he probably needs to make changes...whether the answers are on the other side of the world is a different story! And very much agree that if you have an opportunity to try somewhere else then you should. I guess it boils down to the level of risk you are prepared to take.

I know for a fact that if I hadn't gone to Oz, I'd be here wondering what it would be like to live and work there, and yearning to see for myself. Having done it, I can now reflect that my quality of life is in the UK...for lots of reasons. On the other hand, I see my sister 'living the Aussie dream' - married an Aussie, 30 acres of vines, property backing on to the Murray river, year round sunshine, ready-made family.....then I see her living the other side of it.....18 hr days pruning/picking/tending to crops, weeks on end of 40+ degrees, trying to work outside in that heat, shifts at 2am to spray crops in the coolest part of the 'day', 500 miles from a city, etc....what suits one doesn't always suit another, and there's pros and cons of every lifestyle. And there is the same shit in Oz as here.....but it affects people in varying degrees.

But I do understand, once you have itchy feet, they sometimes have to be itched...!!

HiddenPaw

I will add as well that although I have now opted to move back to UK, I can only look on Oz as having been a positive experience, NOT an unsuccessful one. I've seen and done things in life that would otherwise have passed me by, and that goes for all of us who are making the choice to return. Oz isn't necessarily better....maybe just different.