Hi,

I've been reading on this and other forums about having to pay tax if you transfer funds after you move to Aus and there has been a gain in the meantime. Does anyone know of an official source for this info? I've looked on immi.gov.au to no avail but want to read exactly what the story is straight from the horses mouth!

Cheers
Suzi

If it hasn't already been taxed in UK they can tax you on any profit, if from house or land, I think. If you do it after you have moved main money across that includes profit due to exchange rate but Jaj or someone will be able to tell you the correct speel.

Hi

You should be able to get all the info you need from here

This basically means that if you transfer money to Oz, and it earns interest in Oz, then that interest (ie gain) is subject to tax. It is a form of income. Try www.ato.gov.au

Spot on...just what I was looking for. Thank you Wendy C and Ozziedoc

No probs. I'm glad someone understands it.


Boy are my tax returns gonna be fun (NOT)

Word of warning: advice from some people on this forum can be misleading!

Does this help:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=327

Best regards.

yes it does, it's really well expained, thank you!

That's why i like to read the official word on things

There seem to be two schools of thought on this. A gain (or loss is included in your tax return and counted as income or an amount deductible from your income. Or it counts as a capital gain which is taxed in the same way as income but a capital loss can only be recovered against a simiolar capital gain in the following tax year.

I've yet to find which is correct. My feeling is that either way is acceptible because so called experts quote one method or the other.

Regards

I have also been confused by these two schools of thought. I recently contacted the ATO and finally got put through to “special skill set 3a department” (I think that was the name). There I got a very clear explanation of what matters to the ATO – and therefore how to treat my tax return as far as forex gains/losses on transfers.

Very simply if you transfer income as pension or salary it should be declared as such at one of three exchange rate options. That is spot rate on the day of receipt, the monthly average or the annual rate for year end June 30th. All these rates are on the ATO website. The same applies to interest earned on capital remaining in the UK and it is treated as income as you would expect.

I was surprised to hear that the ATO are not interested in any forex gains you might make on transferring GBP to $A if it is capital. This would seem to contradict what some others have been saying on this website. So any gains (I should wish) will not appear on my tax return.

If in doubt check with the ATO.

Regards

Jumbo ... if you want certainty get it in writing - you may have to obtain a Private Ruling.

Best regards.

You cant be serious. Do you think the ATO is wrong about this?

Regards

To be sure, I'd phone up a couple of more times and speak to different people. You'd be surprised at how many people in government agencies don't know their policies.