advice if possible

Hi

Completion of the sale of our home takes place next week. We lived in it until we migrated here then it was rented for 3.5 years all declared legally here and in the UK regarding tax.

Question regarding bringing a large sum of money from the UK into Australia...........

Tax issue as this money is going towards paying off Australian mortgage are we to pay tax on this? Its a tad complicated as half the house was an inheritance ... Recommendations of a good tax accountant with a foot hold in the UK would be greatly received or from anyone really

thanks in advance

Elfie for you, and anyone else who has a scenario of bringing capitol over to Oz from UK, I suggest that you consult financial advisers and accountants who have experience of the UK and Australian tax system. Two who spring to mind are John from Moneycorp, and Andrew from Vista Financial Services. Both of these gents advertise on this forum and post regularly helping out forum members. I am sure that if they cannot advise you directly, they will know who to direct you to.

For other forum members with similar issues, it would be good if you could post on how this worked out for you.

Cheers sweetie

We did this just over a year ago... and for us technically yes there was some tax liability to pay in Aus if you have already bought a property here (although I have no idea if the rules have changed since we did it or how the inheritance part affects it!). But it is very complicated and all to do with the increase in value and exchange rates from the time you bought property in Australia. Talk to a tax expert, we used GM Tax (Jane Cooper) (they are the tax branch of GM visas that Allan Collett runs I believe) They have offices in both Southampton and Perth and have been very helpful for us so I would suggest giving them a call.

I am an accountant but not a tax accountant so could be worth getting expert advice.

I wouldn't have thought so based on the Double taxation agreement between Aus & the UK. You are just transferring your own money and what you do with it after that is your business.

The general principles are as follows:

Any tax you paid in the Uk, you will receive a credit for against any Aus liability

Generally, you would be liable for CGT for the period it was an investment property (normally pro-rata - although Australia has some weird 6 year exemption if you lived in it).

You generally are allowed indexation for the inflation

Any inheritance tax liability would be have been paid in the UK.

Also don't use a bank for transferring your money, you will get a much better rate through a Moneycorp, HALO, transfermate etc.

Hope this helps, but may be worth documenting all the facts and history and spending a couple of hundred getting expert advice. You could also call the ATO and ask them in general terms.

We sold and completed on our UK house 2 months after moving into our newly built Aus house in 2015, we avoided UK CGT but got nailed here in Aus. We used GM Tax here in Perth, this was based on the fact that our UK house was no longer our primary residence and had been a rental etc etc etc.