Ken

If you are self-employed or otherwise running your own business then yes you'll need a couple of years, but as an employee you only need a few payslips unless it's a casual position or you are still in a probationary period. Not sure where the housing market will be in a year's time but that's when mortgage rates may start rising again! Don't forget to take into account how much more complicated it will be to sell you house after you've left the country and that (depending on how soon you sell after leaving the country) you may have CGT to pay in the UK as a non-resident selling UK residential property. Even if the gain is small enough to be covered by your tax free allowances it's red tape to deal with.

Geelong is practically a suburb of Melbourne (it's more accurate to call Geelong part of Melbourne than it is to call the Central Coast part of Sydney) and indeed the countryside between Melbourne and Geelong is all being built up so fast that the distinction will soon disappear. Bendigo on the other hand is 150km or a 2 hour train journey away (not much less by car) so it's a bit different from the outer suburbs of Melbourne - although I do remember people who commuted from Norwich to London daily so it's possible.

It's taxable in Australia if you are a citizen or permanent resident. Note that a lump sum pension paid to an Australian should be taxed only in Australia, but an uncrystallised lump sum is taxed in the UK and the AFE (Applicable Fund Earnings) is taxed in Australia. The AFE is the growth in the fund since you became an Australian resident. The value when you moved to Australia is tax free in these circumstance. This is important because if it is taken as a pension the only part that is tax free is the UPP (Undeducted Purchase Price) which is purely the pension contributions you made (not those made by your employer or the growth before you moved to Australia) - and then only if the ATO has agreed to that figure. You should be able to claim tax paid in the UK as an offset under the terms of the double taxation treaty in which case the total amount of tax you have to pay would be the same (other than any FX differences) whether you reclaim the UK tax paid from HMRC or from the ATO (as a tax offset). However if the ATO restrict this offset on the grounds that part of it relates to the tax free portion you might get less that way so I'd reclaim it from HMRC just to be sure (I'm not certain of the ATO view of this so I'm probably being overly cautious).

You can't have a hot water tank outside in the UK. The pipes would freeze in winter. Sure the water leak would be outside but it would be way more expensive due to the frequency. In Canada (and other really cold parts of the world) you can't even have pipework inside an outside wall.

There is nothing in the regulations that restrict them to only holding one ceremony per month. One a week would exceed the ~2000 test per month.

Wise is unfortunately not a suitable place to keep a large amount of AUD long term. If you hold a balance of more than AUD 23,000 for more than 3 days you have to pay a fee (equivalent to 1.6% per year). This is because of the Capital Requirements rules imposed by the Australian government which incur extra costs on "Purchase Payment Facilities" (or what you probably call Money Transfer Agencies) for holding customer funds. They obviously do charge you to convert as do all banks/transfer agencies. Some banks hide that charge within the FX rate and then pretend it's "commission free" to convert but if their exchange rates are poor it can be much more expensive. Always look at who will give you the most AUD after all fees. There is a fee to transfer from your Wise account to an Australian Bank Account but it is only 57 cents (that's AUD 0.57) per bank transfer. I don't think they would be charging such a small amount to make a profit. It's clearly the cost to them that they are charging rather building this into their FX rate. Withdrawals by Debit Card are fee free (well to you it is - the merchant will be paying as with any other debit card).

If you have a debit card account with Wise they can give you your own UK account number and sort code so it's just like having a bank account with Wise (except you can easily transfer into a different currency and if you spend with the debit card in any currency it will use which currency you have available in your account).

We've all been thinking it Bulya, but we didn't like to say.

I think you'll find that's been abolished in the UK too. Apparently a 1st class stamp is now 85p ($1.55).

Shiploads hasn't even got across the Bass Strait to Victoria yet. Their website shows 13 stores all in Tasmania. I think it'll be a long time before they get across the Nullabor.

The issue is more one of people who are up to date with their repayments moving overseas and then stopping making any further repayments. It happens with Child Support too. They can't be stopped from going overseas just because there are payments they need to make in the future.

I think that distorts the picture. Birmingham and Manchester are both in the middle of conurbations with populations of 2.5 million people but the West Midlands is only 909km2 while Greater Manchester is 1,276km2. Greater Brisbane isn't much smaller in terms of population (2.3 million) but is 15,826km2. Gold Coast is only 414km2 but it's population is only 540K so again far less dense than either Birmingham or Manchester.

Still a rarity in Melbourne.

Technically it's the courts that can force you to pay, but yes the SLC can get a court order. Options they can pursue (if you don't have the money or assets that can be sold) include making your employer take a deduction from pay each pay period or even requiring your bank to hand over a proportion of any money paid into your bank account. Because the Australian government have the same issue with the student loans of people who go overseas as the British government does, they have a mutual agreement.

I'm sure they won't need more than the first page since they are only looking to confirm your address. Normally the other pages only show bank transactions.

Normally you only need the first page of your bank statement as proof of address as that is the one with your address on it. Bank statements normally have an issue date (it's the date they were printed by the Bank) but of course not an expiry date. Are you sure the expiry date is a compulsory field?

What? They've banned bonfire toffee? Actually it's one of the things I appreciate about Australia. It doesn't feel like walking through a warzone for a week each November (why could they never restrict themselves to just the 5th?)

Some of these fields may not be applicable for a bank statement, but all the fields appear whichever document you select. Just fill in the ones you have and leave blank any that aren't on the bank statement if it lets you. The Bank Statement will have a Bank Statement number which is the Document Reference Number, and you will have a date of birth even if it's not shown on the bank statement plus the bank will have an address in a particular country even if the name of the country isn't written on the bank statement so you can fill in all of those if it is insisting on them even if they aren't written on the bank statement.

Getting your loan written off depends upon what loan plan it is and when you took out the loan and upon whether or not you've paid the correct percentage of your earning throughout the loan period (i.e. than no fraud has occurred) but provided the reason you haven't repaid it is because you haven't earned enough to pay it off then it will be written off as follows:- Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2005/06 or earlier are written off when you are 65 Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2006/07 or later are written off 25 years after the April you were first due to repay Plan 2 loans are written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay Plan 4 loans taken out out in the academic year 2006/07 or earlier are written off when you are 65 or 30 years after the April you were first due to repay - whichever comes first Plan 4 loans taken out in the academic year 2007/08 or later are written off 30 years after the April your were first due to repay The SLC have the ability to take a lien on your Australian salary but that would only be for delinquent debtors and the debtor would be responsible for the extra costs involved. The normal instructions for how to make repayments (without incurring extra debt recovery fees) are on their website.

Even the makers of Marmite accept that you either love or hate it. You're definitely not the only one who hates it. However Marmite and Vegemite while similar are not the same. Some people will like both but just because you like one it doesn't mean you'll like the other. By the way while I'm not sure about bread and dripping, but I remember dripping on hot toast being delicious. Probably dreadfully unhealthy and I haven't eaten it in decades but nevertheless delicious.

Maybe because they've tasted the Vegemite?

I wish I'd known about Solar Hot Water. We've got one of the most efficient gas boilers - but solar would have been better. We didn't have solar panels and battery from the start (I'm not even sure a battery could have been bought at a sensible price back then) but now that we have them I'd prefer induction hobs rather than gas because why are we paying for gas when electricity is free?

Never call it 'Our Mate' it's Marmite. Calling it 'Our Mate' is equivalent to giving in to the NZ pirate version.

Well they were only launched in 1969. Probably a little new fangled for you but I certainly remember them from the sweetshops of my childhood.

The Cadbury version is the Cadbury Twirl but the Galaxy Ripple was around first so if that's the name newjez remembers that's probably the one.