Hi,
we are migrating to Australia this year.
We will have approx £150k of equity from our house that we will want to move to Australia to buy another house.

Are there any taxes / pitfalls we should avoid?

Please advise...... if you know.

Matthew,

This article from Go Matilda News might be of interest:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=327

Best regards.

Any transfer of the equity from your house sale will escape the scope of most of the Forex rules provided the funds are from a private and dosmetic source. However, CGT may still be an issue.

Tip: Keep the funds in a bank account opened before Sept 1985 to avoid capital gains issues.

Thanks for that.

From what I understand if I keep GBPs whilst I'm a tax resident of Australia, then if they are transferred to AUD at a preferential rate (i.e. higher than when I became a tax resident) then I'm OK so long as the account was opened before July 2003.
If not then I am liable for income tax on any gains made in the exchange rate.
However, if I keep GBPs and transfer them at a detremental rate then I can claim against my taxable allowance.

All of this is providing the acount was opened before July 2003.

If not then I presume that I either have to pay tax or cannot claim against my taxable allowance depending on what happens to the exchange rate if the account is older than July 2003?


I have an alternative idea:
What happens if I keep my money in a newly opened account in the UK, paying good interest and then transfer it to an old account opened in 1999 just before making the GBP -> AUD conversion? Surely in terms of tax I cannot be disadvantaged either way the exchange rate moves?
Or will this prevent me from claiming against my taxable allowance if the exchange rate goes down and my money has been in a new account whilst this has happened.

Please help as this is really a spanner in the works.