You only pay tax on the income you’ve earned in the country you’ve moved to but not on any income earned in the country you’ve left. That includes your pension. I know this to be true from living and working in South Africa.
Whilst it’s true you’ll have to take out private health insurance instead of being covered by the NHS, the only difference will be that the Insurance company will pick up and pay the bill instead of the NHS.
Asfor having NO RIGHT to move to any other EU country, well that’s just a figment of your imagination!
That’s not true, I mean, it might be true in South Africa but it is not true elsewhere.
Foreign income has to be declared in Australia whether you are a wage earner or a pensioner. I don’t know what the tax rates for foreign income are but I understand that foreign tax is taken into account and is added to your income however some people like defence force personnel are exempt from tax on overseas earnings but must still declare the income (I know that because my son came back from the Gulf war with money to burn).
As a pensioner every dollar of UK pension also reduces your Australian pension by 50c. It also counts toward your taxable income as does your Australian pension (however most pensioners never reach the threshold to pay tax - which I believe is about $30000).
The ironic thing is that my superannuation is tax free and doesn’t count toward income but it does count as an asset which does affect pension entitlements.
I think I have mentioned before a UK pensioner I knew vaguely who had to return to the UK when our dollar rose a few years back - it eventually reached 70p ($1.10US) but he was badly affected long before that.
He said that it was a struggle living in Australia on an English pension when things were normal (ie $1Aus= 50p) but as the pound fell it became impossible. (I don’t know what the English pension is but our single pension is about $920 a fortnight or about £230 a week - couples get slightly less than twice as much - there are some extras such as rent allowance for people who don’t own a home, I think)
If the pound does fall dramatically in March then you can expect this sort of thing to be repeated.
I paid tax on the income I earned in South Africa, but was only liable for tax if the interest on any income brought into SA from the UK was over a certain amount.
I don’t need clarification, I don’t care what they do in South Africa - I merely point out that because something happens in one country it cannot be used to say that it is the same everywhere.
I watched a police officer move abroad the other day - he had her handcuffed and she was most vocal - she kept shouting " I know I can be very moving but I AM NOT a moving broad?"
My sister lives in CA - I have visited and would consider it to be one of the safest; most peaceful and friendliest countries in the world and YET it has spawned one of if not the most horrific bikie gang in the world?? - you can have it some ways but not all ways!!
