Capital Gains Tax Owed In Oz - Ex Wife Will Not Supply Info

[UbonOz]

Part of the settlement from my ex-wife was from the sale of an investment property in 2010.

I have lived in Thailand since 2006 and always paid my dues regarding tax.

Income I have received in Australia has withholding tax deducted at source so I do not need to complete a tax return each year.

My dilemma is that I plan to return to Oz in October and was not sure if any bells will start ringing at immigration when I enter the country due to the fact that I have an outstanding debt with the ATO (Capital Gains Tax).

I have not been to Oz since 2007 and my ex-wife has all the necessary paperwork regarding the sale of the property which she has not given me.

I intend to take all my relevant paperwork regarding tax with me to try and sort out the problem.

I only intend being in Oz for three weeks. They may let me in, but will they let me out?

Has anybody experienced a similar situation.

Any help appreciated.

[David48]

Such a specialised question.

Maybe you might be best advised to contact an accountant in Australia or maybe, if you have any friends or social contacts there, maybe they can ask their accountant.

As for entry into Australia, if you are an Australian Citizen with a current valid Australian they cannot deny you entry.

In relation to the CGT my gut feeling is that the ATO would not place an order limiting travel.

The reason being, while CGT is payable they, the ATO, would have no idea how much might be liable to be paid.

Since you have not completed a Tax Return for several years, the ATO do not know if you have a capital loss based on the sale of an incoming producing asset in Australia.

In simple terms, maybe you may have owned shares and sold them at a loss and that loss could be written off against the capital gain with the investment property.

Hence the ATO would not know your current Capital gain/loss situation until you have completed the most recent tax return.

Also because property laws in Australia are state based it's difficult to advise you there.

I am sure that there are many Australian citizens travelling in and out of Australia whose current tax affairs are currently not up to date ... cough!

If you decide to do nothing I'm sure it will be a nervous wait at the immigration line and a huge sense of relief when the plane takes off.

Good luck and let us know what happens in a month or two's time.

[Will27]

I think this topic should probably be moved into the economy and banking forum as it's nothing to really

do with migrating or visa's.

The first thing I would be doing is checking the ATO website to see if you have to

lodge a tax return: http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.aspx?doc=/content/00178872.htm&headline=doIneedtolodgeataxreturn?&segment=individuals

Just because you're taxed at source doesn't mean that you always don't have to lodge tax returns.

If you do, then you might be in a world of pain with late lodgements etc.

I maybe be missing something here but you say that you have an O/S debt but haven't lodged a tax return?

So unless the ATO have "lodged one" for you, you don't actually have a debt at the moment.

If you're are supposed to lodge tax returns and don't, the ATO can set an amount for you.

Usually this is done using "average weekly earnings" but not always.

Do you still receive mail from Oz as the ATO might be trying to contact you.

If you cannot get all of the relevant paper-work you will have to provide a figure to the best of

your ability.

How hard have you tried to get the paperwork? Do you have a family accountant you could try?

What paperwork do you actually need?

Like mentioned by David, no problems entering and extemely unlikely a court order would've been

placed to stop you departing.

All the best.

Will