Posted by
hkferris
16 yrs ago
I'm moving to HK in 6 weeks to take a permanent job with a new company. I don't intend on returning to Australia. I have a house in Australia which I live in now and want to keep so i can stay in it when I return to see my kids (3 days once a month). I will not earn income in Australia and will declare myself a non-resident.
Interested to hear from anyone who has had issues with the ATO for doing something like this. Specifically I'm interested to know if keeping a house (one of the residency tests) and using it while in Aus has been a problem.
thks!
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tpol
16 yrs ago
As I understand it, you can keep a place for residency and even rent it out and earn income as long as you have lived in it. (How long, I am not sure)
Just make sure that you declare yourself as a non resident for Tax Purposes.
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You can keep your house in Australia if you rent it out. If you don't rent it out, you will very likely be determined to be a resident for Australian tax purposes. Apart from that, the tax office will also look at your family ties in Australia ... etc You should seek proper tax advice from an Australian Tax Advisor.
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Thanks for your replies. It's a very ambiguous situation, given the lack of clear rules. I phoned the ATO and they said they wouldn't advise on residency status, it was something we needed to declare. They also said that if we weren't generating inome in Australia we didn't need to lodge a return and they weren't interested in knowing about the house. They wouldn't speculate on what impact that would have in the event of an investigation of residency status though......looks like I'll need to get more advice. Thanks again.
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ceeh
16 yrs ago
We've lived outside of Australia for more than 7 years and deem ourselves not residents of Australia for tax purposes. We do not rent our home out but we do rent other properties that we own. We submit a tax return to the Aust IR and only state the income / expenses on those rental properties.
If we did not own rental properties we would not submit a return as no income earned in Aust.
I can't see a problem with you living outside of Aust and owning a house there.
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