Retiring to Australia

This is the fourth in the Majenda Insights Series. My name’s Geoff Taylor and I’m a tax accountant and Australian financial planner. And the topic of this video is ‘Retiring to Australia’. But before I get into the detail, I should mention that this is general advice in nature. I haven’t taken into account your personal goals, needs, objectives, or circumstances. If you do need me to do that, I’ll be quite happy to do so. This is really aimed at the expat who’s intending to retire to Australia. And the thing to remember is that if you want to use the superannuation system and you’re out of the superannuation system for a long time, that’s a factor.

How do I get back to optimizing my superannuation position if I’m going to retire in Australia because superannuation money is taxed at concessional rates and can be tax-free in retirement. And there’s a whole gamut of issues. But the thing is, if you’re going to make contributions and ramp up to the same level that you would have been in Australia if you’d worked in Australia, that might take some lead time. Where I can assist is explaining the tax rules and super rules whilst you’re overseas. Then once you’re back in Australia, I can provide you with financial advice. In some cases, clients will fly in to obtain that financial advice, even though they’re still based overseas.

The key issue is that you need to be preparing a long way in advance if you’re going to retire in Australia and you want to use the benefits of the superannuation system. Then you’ve got all the issues of how to exit the overseas pension schemes, whether it’s the UK, 401(k) in the US. There’s a whole range of provident schemes and pension schemes. And you need to know how those rules work in terms of exiting and whether there is any potential to transfer them.

In the case of the UK, you can do transfers back into the superannuation system under certain conditions and rules. That’s something that you need to think about in advance. This is just a short video to give you a heads-up on some of the things that you need to be aware of. If you’d like to set up a meeting, my contact details are below. And usually I do Zoom calls. But if you happen to be in Sydney and you would like to set up a face-to-face meeting, I’d be happy to do so. I look forward to seeing you soon.