Tax Advice - Double Taxation

[jamesr32]

Hi all,

I apologise if there is already a thread/section dedicated to Tax advice, I have just joined today and navigating around this site isn't the easiest.

I have recently moved to Australia from the UK, my girlfriend is a Kiwi so I have come over on a 5 year de-facto visa, the plan is to just keep renewing every 5 years, so from my point of view this is a permanent move, but from the Ozzie Governments view I am considered a temporary visitor, not sure if this effects my situation but thought I'd add the background detail.

Basically my position is this:

I have worked as a sole trader in the UK for a number of years.
I emigrated here, on the 7th December 2009, and I intend to continue working for my various British clients from overseas.
I will be carrying out all work over in Australia and invoicing from Australia, however, my clients will be paying my invoices into my UK bank account, which I will draw my wage from.

I have been told, by some people, that I no longer have to pay for UK Tax once I have been out of the country for 6 months and told by others that I'll have to pay Tax to both the UK and Australian governments.

I have looked on the HM Revenue & Custom Website, UK, and believe that I fall within the UK/Australia Double Taxation Convention, though it states "A holder of a Temporary Resident Visa is only entitled to claim relief from UK tax under the UK/Australia Double Taxation Convention for income paid before 1 July 2006."

Since this will not be the case does this mean that I will have to pay Taxation twice?
I would appreciate it if anyone could offer any advice/experiences of their own and to point me in the right direction for information and perhaps if any one can recommend an Ozzie accountant that specialises in UK/Australian Tax system in the Sydney area that would be a big help.

James

[amaslam]

Hi James:

I'm sure the other UK expats will have advice for you soon, but this question comes up alot in the Dubai forum (so do a quick search there).

As I recall from those threads. You do have to pay tax in the UK the year you leave and the year you return, but not in between (I think you need file a form P65 or something similar for this). Now for AU you do have to pay AU taxes and you are a PR visa holder in AU so same taxes as all the Aussies (your not a temp visa holder as de-facto spouse visa is a PR visa which allows you to stay in AU even after the 5 yrs, just for travel in and out of AU you need to do the RRV visa every 5 yrs).

I recommend you get a tax person in both countries and work out the finer details but ultimately you do have to pay tax somewhere and from my thinking it's going to be AU while you reside here and both places in the year you move from/move back to the UK (but partial tax year calculations, --> ask tax person).

Take a look at this as well:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/hmrc6.pdf

Originally Posted by jamesr32

Hi all,

I apologise if there is already a thread/section dedicated to Tax advice, I have just joined today and navigating around this site isn't the easiest.

I have recently moved to Australia from the UK, my girlfriend is a Kiwi so I have come over on a 5 year de-facto visa, the plan is to just keep renewing every 5 years, so from my point of view this is a permanent move, but from the Ozzie Governments view I am considered a temporary visitor, not sure if this effects my situation but thought I'd add the background detail.

Basically my position is this:

I have worked as a sole trader in the UK for a number of years.
I emigrated here, on the 7th December 2009, and I intend to continue working for my various British clients from overseas.
I will be carrying out all work over in Australia and invoicing from Australia, however, my clients will be paying my invoices into my UK bank account, which I will draw my wage from.

I have been told, by some people, that I no longer have to pay for UK Tax once I have been out of the country for 6 months and told by others that I'll have to pay Tax to both the UK and Australian governments.

I have looked on the HM Revenue & Custom Website, UK, and believe that I fall within the UK/Australia Double Taxation Convention, though it states "A holder of a Temporary Resident Visa is only entitled to claim relief from UK tax under the UK/Australia Double Taxation Convention for income paid before 1 July 2006."

Since this will not be the case does this mean that I will have to pay Taxation twice?
I would appreciate it if anyone could offer any advice/experiences of their own and to point me in the right direction for information and perhaps if any one can recommend an Ozzie accountant that specialises in UK/Australian Tax system in the Sydney area that would be a big help.

James

[kaz101]

I would definitely get some professional advice on this one.

We moved from the UK in 2007 (PR skilled independent visa) and filled in the forms to let them know we were leaving. We are Australian residents. Since we earn rental income in the UK we still have to pay tax in the UK and it goes into our Australian tax returns but we don't pay tax on it again.

I'm (sometimes ) an IT contractor working with a UK company and I invoice them in pounds but the payment comes to Australia and I pay on it in Australia so that's slightly different from your situation. You can have GBP accounts with business banking in Australia by the way if that's why you're being paid into a UK account.

Regards,
Karen