Tax Query

[Guest Anna Nolan]

I am thinking of emigrating to Adelaide later in the year from the Uk and have a number of tax questions and was wondering whether anyone can help:

1) For investments held in the UK - I understand these are valued on date of emigration - do they also get translated into Aus dollars on this date or does the translation only happen when you sell the investment - ie is the gain or loss calculated in sterling and then translated or are the cost and sale proceeds at different exchange rates ?

2) For your main home in the UK - is it right you have 6 years to sell this or if sooner the purchase of a house in Oz before it becomes a taxable investment ?

3) My husband is Australian and he has lived in the UK for 10 years - he had some shares before he left Oz. Do these get revalued at the date we return to Oz?

4) ISAs - how are these treated for tax purposes in Oz?

 

[Andrew from Vista Financial]

Hi Anna

 

Cross border tax planning is a very specialist subject and if you want to plan effectively you should seek specialist advice.

 

A few points:

 

Permanent residents of Australia have to delare their worldwide income and generally assets are revalued the day they become tax residents of Australia.

 

There is a 6 year main resident exemption in Australia but it is not as long as that in the UK.

 

HMRC will still have a hold on your assets for income purposes, also for capital gains purposes for a certain timescale.

 

I suspect the shares revaluation will be a bit more complex since he acquired the shares in Australia prior to moving away.

 

Regards

 

Andy