What should I check each year on UK tax, pensions and property?

Living in Australia doesn’t switch off the UK. If you have UK rent, savings, pensions or property, a short check each year keeps you right with HMRC and the ATO, and avoids paying tax twice.

Your yearly check-up

1. Know your Australian tax status. Temporary residents leave out most foreign income; permanent residents and citizens declare worldwide income. Getting permanent residence changes this
2. File your UK tax return if you have UK rental or other untaxed UK income
3. Declare UK income in Australia if you’re an Australian resident for tax, and claim credit for UK tax paid
4. Check your National Insurance record and decide about voluntary contributions
5. Update the Student Loans Company with your income
6. Review your will and super nomination. See Do we need a will in Australia?

Two tax years, two returns

• As a non-resident you can’t use HMRC’s own online service to file. Use paper, commercial software or an accountant, and include the residence pages (SA109)
• British citizens keep the UK Personal Allowance (£12,570) against UK income
• If last year’s UK bill was £1,000 or more, you may need to make payments on account on 31 January and 31 July

Renting out your UK home

Under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, your letting agent (or your tenant, if the rent is over £100 a week and there’s no agent) takes basic-rate tax off the rent and pays it to HMRC each quarter. You can apply to HMRC to receive the rent with no tax taken off. Either way, you still declare the rent on a UK return.

Under the UK–Australia double taxation agreement, the UK can tax rent from UK property. If you’re an Australian resident for tax, you also declare it in Australia and claim a foreign income tax offset for the UK tax paid on it, so you don’t pay twice. Keep UK and Australian records. See Should I rent out or sell my UK home?

ISAs and UK savings

You can keep your ISA, but you can’t pay in once you’re not UK resident. The UK still treats it as tax-free. Australia doesn’t: if you’re an Australian resident for tax, interest, dividends and gains inside an ISA are income you declare like any other foreign investment. UK bank interest is declared too.

Your UK pensions

• State Pension: paid in Australia but frozen. It stays at the rate you first get abroad, with no yearly rises. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026–27
• Voluntary NI: since 6 April 2026 you can only pay Class 3 from abroad (£18.40 a week), and only if you lived in the UK for 10 years in a row or paid 10 years of contributions. Check your record and forecast on GOV.UK
• Workplace and personal pensions: the UK–Australia treaty says pensions paid to someone living in Australia are taxed only in Australia, except UK government service pensions (such as civil service, NHS, teachers’, police and armed forces pensions), which the UK usually still taxes. Declare them on your Australian return if you’re a resident for tax, and ask HMRC to pay without UK tax
• Transfers to super: the receiving fund must be a QROPS. A 25% overseas transfer charge applies unless an exemption fits, such as living in the same country as the scheme. Not every Australian fund can take a UK transfer. See What happens to my UK pension?
• From 6 April 2027, most unused UK pension funds and death benefits count towards your estate for UK inheritance tax

Selling UK property or investments

• If you sell UK property as a non-resident, report it to HMRC within 60 days of completion through a Capital Gains Tax on UK property account, even if there’s no tax or you made a loss
• If you’re an Australian resident for tax, the gain can be taxed in Australia too, with a foreign income tax offset for UK tax. Assets you owned when you became resident are usually treated as bought at their market value on that day, except Australian property
• Ask your adviser how exchange-rate moves affect the Australian figures before you sell

Inheritance tax and your UK home

Since 6 April 2025 UK inheritance tax depends on long-term UK residence: 10 of the last 20 tax years. After you leave, you stay in scope for 3 to 10 tax years. UK property is always in scope. If you leave a UK home empty or keep it as a second home in England, councils can charge extra council tax.