Few questions re move to Aus

[ChipsAreLife]

Hi there,

DH and I have decided to move to Aus following a trip over the holiday season. We are both lovers of the outdoors and being active and just feel it will offer far more for us there as a young family.

I was born there and moved to UK over 20 years ago and have kept my citizenship so I'm hopeful a move should be fairly straight forward.

I had a few questions I was wondering if anyone could help me with please.

• can anyone recommend an immigration lawyer? I know we could do DH Visa ourselves but I would find it better to use an expert as we are time poor at present.

• kids schooling, in the process of registering my kids for their Australian citizenship. Will they have to pay for schooling? If so, any ideas on how much?

• finally this is a bit niche. We would like to keep our UK businesses going and operate them for the UK. Does anyone have any experience with this and how it works please?

Thanks so much in advance!

Best to join 'Poms wanting oz' on fb
Youll get great advice there

Oh thanks @PandaPop34 I will do that!

East or West coast? I have a recommendation for an immigration agent in Perth

No the kids won't have to pay school fees if they are aussies

Get a good tax accountant in both UK and Australia. You will be paying both Australian and UK taxes (Australia tax,like UK, is on world wide income) - but can offset them (double taxation treaty) but this may end up straining the cash flow if you need to wait for refunds.

From what I recall, UK will tax your company as normal, then 20% 'withholding tax' on your dividends. This you can then offset against the tax Australia will ask for on the dividends.

If you want to draw a salary as well as taking dividends in Australia you will probably need to set up a company there that bills your UK companies a management fee and employs you.

My BIL runs his New Zealand business from Perth - seems to work OK as the time difference is doable, and it is a WFH business (IT support to small firms). He just draws dividends from NZ, rather than paying himself a salary.

(sorry, as I am sure you know, much higher % of aussies go to private schools than in the UK - assume that you will be using state schools though. Private schools charge the same regardless of passport)

@wisbech thank you so much! We are thinking west coast to make it easier with time difference, I actually work with a lot of US brands so it will make little difference in one sense. We are just weighing up if it makes sense to keep the companies or get jobs there.

But for me to get a job would mean Sydney and you get less house for your money which puts me off!

Yes please to the immigration agent recommendation!

PM sent,...

Deborah Laws

Also try pomsinoz forum.

www.pomsinoz.com

i would recommend Fragomen for international visa assistance. They handled both our PR when we first moved over and our citizenship and have offices all over Australia. They also handle the time difference well when you are applying from the UK.

For state schools usually you are still required to pay a small fee as a contribution to costs. We paid about £300 a year for primary school before moving our son into the private sector. Friends with children in state high school pay over £1000 per year. You also have to cover the cost of their school books - about £200 annually for primary and up to £400+ for high school, which all has to be ordered for the start of term, as well as providing an approved laptop.

All our UK income (from a few properties) is taxed in Australia on a reciprocal agreement. We do have to complete a UK tax return but the tax amount is zero as long as we have declared the income here. My account assures me that HMRC does check.

Thanks @echt and @IDontHaveAScooby really appreciate it.

@Eviepeanut this is great thanks so much! Think we look at state to start and then look to private for high school potentially. We have three DC so it adds up!

Thanks for the information on tax too it seems to be very straightforward. We want to move to Perth but would mean me keeping my business as there is little work for me there. If not would have to be Sydney which is where I grew up and love but just preferred Perth this time round! Thanks again

realestate.com.au
look at the price of houses in Sydney. They’re ridiculously expensive.
syd is up there as being one of the more pricey areas to live