I have been offered a job in Sydney and the money sounds good but as I'm always worrying I would like to know how to calculate my take-home pay.

I will be on 142,000 and have one school age child and my wife (who will not be working) to support - do I get tac relief for these? married person's allowance or similar?

Also looking at initially renting a place for 500 - 600 pw (is that cheap or expensive?) what are my likely other outgoings to be?

Please help me as I'm worrying about this and have to decied whether to accept the offer or not soon.

Karl

Hi there,

I live in Sydney, have a wife who doesnt work and a 3 year old child. I earn $80,000 and live quite happily. We have a mortgage and run 2 cars. I think you wont need to worry on the salary you have been offered !

What part of Sydney are you thinking of renting in ?? And what type of property are you thinking of renting ?? Where I live (SW Sydney) $500 would get you a very nice 4 bedroom property with a garden and off street parking. In other parts of Sydney you would get significantly less for $500 - eg nearer the sea or in the city.

There is no married persons allowance here in Oz and no tax breaks for having a non-working wife. I assume you are coming here on a 457 vis (temporary visa) ?

To calculate your tax you need to be aware of the various tax rates - these can be found at

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/cont...htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001

However as of 1 July 2008 the tax rates are changing. I reckon you should expect to have a take home of just under $8000 - a very nice amount to have !

Thanks Colin

As employer is not paying Super I'm assuming that the 9% super comes off first before tax and then I pay tax per your link?

Thinking of a place in North Sydney, based upon recommendations from colleagues and possible schools and commutable to CBD - possibly around Hornsby area.

Ideally we would like a 3 bed house with a bit of space outside. Is that feasible and if so what sort of rates are we looking at?

The main drain on resources however is likely to be school fees; coming from UK part way through the academic year and wanting to get our daughter into a selective school seems to be limiting things to private schools with associated fees!

Karl

When you say that your emplyer is not paying super, I assume that you mean that the super is included as part of your salary package ? By law they have to pay you at least 9% super and this is usually paid to the super company by your employer - so if they are NOT paying super then they are breaking the law !!

As for tax then yes you have to deduct the 9% super first then work out the tax from there. After the 1st July the ATO website should have the 2008-2009 tax rates on the link I gave you.

Your taxable income should be around $130k which is an excellent salary to have.

You haven't said what kind of visa you will have ?? If you will be coming on a temporary visa then you will have to be pay school fees whatever kind of school you send your child to - even for a state public school. What do you mean by a 'selective' school ?? When will you be arriving in Sydney do you think ? Rememnber the Oz school year runs from February to December and has a 4 term system. 4th term starts on the 13th October and ends 19th December.

I dont know too much about the area you are thinking of moving too - but if you haven't alread discovered them then these websites are the best for rental details:-

www.realestate.com.au
www.domain.com.au

Thanks again Colin.

Didn't know that emplyer paid the super; thought employee had to pay this. Either way it's not in my pocket and it's paid before tax kicks in.

Will be on an employer sponsored temp visa to start with until my PR visa eventually gets granted (applied last Ocotber!).

Do you know much about medicare levy? Will I have to pay the levy in my first tax year as I won't have had insurance to the point I came to Australia?

Also for tax to pay in Australia will my earnings in the UK for the first part of the year be taken into consideration or treated as separate?

By 'selective' I mean where the school selects students based upon academic ability.

We are trying to find a school which will let our daughter join at the start of term 4, or even, if possible, for a few weeks at the end of term 3. Currently lining up lots of visits for when we first get out there.

Thanks for the links I'll have a look.

Karl

Yes you will have to pay Medicare Levy - everyone does. However at the end of the tax year when you submit your tax return you have to declare how many days you have been living Oz. Dependent on this answer depends on whether you get exempted from it - but you only will get it back as a tax rebate after you submit your return in the 2nd half of 2009. I think you might be getting confused with the Medicare Levy Surcharge which is over and above the levy itself. You only pay this if you dont have private medical insurance or earn in excess of $150k per year (for a couple).

Yes your UK earnings (and tax paid) from 1 July 2008 until you leave the UK will have to be taken into account in your first tax return in the second half of 2009.

How old is your daughter ?? There are not many 'selective' schools. Some private schools as you say will take kids who are very intelligent but I here that it is quite a difficult test and I think they can only sit it at various times of the year - this only applies to high school kids I think. Does she go to a 'selective' school currently ?? I didnt think there were many of those left in the UK - unless you are in my home country of Northern Ireland !

Daughter is 12 and just coming up to the end of first year in secondary school here. She currently attends a grammar (selective) school over here. Buckinghamshire is where we live and is one of the few counties still to have grammar schools. She's curently doing well academically so we want to esnure she goes to another academically oriented school. Unfortunately the timing of our move is all wrong for the selection testing and the state selectives are all saying that we can't apply unless on a PR visa so we are looking at good private schools, none of which are cheap - $18,000 for fees alone for a lot of them. And it is the location of these which is driving the location where we will be looking for property. I'll be workign in the CBD so as long as I'm fairly near a train station I should be OK.


Whereabouts are you based?

You dont think that a public school here would provide a good education ?? I know a number of young guys that I work with who are all products of public schools and now are very well respected aircraft structural engineers.

Why not try a public school to see how it goes - you can always transfer her to a private school once you have your PR and can try for the selection testing.

There are a number of private schools in the area where we live - SW Sydney. It is also well connected to the CBD via the East Hills and Airport train line. Worth considerng !

Many private schools are 'religiously' orientated and have very high values.

Colin,

Karl has said that he is coming in initially on a 457 visa so any income earned in the UK prior to his arrival would be disregarded for Oz tax.

Even under PR the normal rule is that you only become subject to Oz tax from the date of your arrival. Case Law has stated that you cannot be assessed for the whole tax year even if you have exceeded the 183 day rule.

The UK income will of course be subject to UK tax.

Hmmm - I was sure that we had to declare our UK income when we arrived. Oh well that was a long time ago now - I guess we didn't ! Thanks for putting me right !