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Transfering Money From UK -> Australia

Hi, I’m new to this forum and am after some advice and thought I'd be the first to post an article in this catagory!

I have money invested in Hedge Funds in the UK which is managed by a close friend of mine. I initially started off investing only a small amount which I could afford to lose but after consistently getting 40%+ returns each year I decided to borrow to invest, which has been great and has financially set me up for life. I’ve now had my investment for over 6 years, and these UK bank loans are all but paid off, leaving me with a huge profit for just filling in some paperwork around 5 years ago!
I’ve been claiming Capital Gains Tax on the profits in the UK and everything is legit. I have recently moved to Australia (Sydney) and I am now looking into buying (my first) home to increase my investment portfolio. However I’m concerned about 2 things:

1) Is it possible for me to go into my Australian bank and withdraw a large chunk of money from my UK account without them getting very suspicious? – What’s the best way to get the money from the UK to Australia?
2) Will I need to pay any Australian Tax on this money or is there anything I need to know first before I transfer the money which will result in me paying tax/ huge charges etc?

I also intend to get a mortgage and leave most of my money in the UK investment as it is so profitable. However as I now live in Australia I am not sure whether I need to claim the profits from this (GBP£) investment by filling in a UK tax return or an Australian one – obviously I don’t want to pay tax twice!

Any advice on this is very welcome!
Thanks
Mark

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Permalink Reply by ff123 on June 1, 2009 at 11:24pm

Find an accountant - fast depending upon when you arrived and left England you may have some tax free part of a year to allow settling up of things without CGT in either country.

If you are a resident of Australia then you are liable for our taxes.
Transferring money is not really a problem - obviously the bank reports big sums - anti laundering laws etc.. but if you have done nothing wrong then there are no problems - most banks here have swift codes so you can do it yourself.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Musgrave on June 2, 2009 at 4:57pm

Hi Mark,
Welcome to Australia.
One suggestion I would make is to only bring to Australia what you need. The reason for this is that the UK pound is very weak at the moment. A couple of years ago A$1 was worth less than 40 pence. Therefore, GBP1,000 was worth A$2,500. Today, however, the exchange rate is almost 50 pence. That means your GBP1,000 is now only worth A$2,000. I suspect that this is a temporary situation and within the next couple of years the pound will strengthen again.
AND, if you are getting 40% return, how can I invest into one of them things????
Hope this helps
Keith

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Permalink Reply by moonbuggy on June 3, 2009 at 2:43pm

I want in on 40% too!! Being going pretty well with 40% the other way lately...

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Permalink Reply by Mark N on June 3, 2009 at 5:33pm

ff123 and Keith - Thanks for the advice, I think I am alright for the time being, but as I intend to draw an income from the investment I will defiantly need an accountant going forward! The Pound has taken a hammeing, especially recently, I think this is due to the government printing more money. I am keeping a close eye on the exchange rates.

Keith + Moonbuggy, yes, 40% PA does sound good - a lot better than any other investment tool I know of! My friend studied finance at Uni and wanted to offer a product that gives great returns to investors, as he was sick with banks boasting record profits yet only offering a max of 4% or 5% returns for savers. His final year project at Uni was on hedge funds and how you could predict the daily peaks and troughs using a fibernachi formula. Whilst at his day job he started trading on the side some 6 years ago (when his boss wasn't looking ;) He has grown from trading from his bedroom to a fully established company with 12 (or more now?) employees.
He makes (on average) 3.9% per month and takes 20% cut of the profits, what is left gets reinvested the following month, so it compounds monthly. Back in Jan 08 when there was a rumble on the Chinese and Indian stock markets he made a massive 9% for the month! He defianly knows what he is doing, but I've been reluctant (in the past) to promote him as his administration wasn't really that good. It's better now as he recently set up Online Accounts for investors. But of course, hedge funds are risky (although Ben is over-cautious with his trading methods).
If you're interested I'll see if Ben can drop you some promotional material or access to a 'test area' of the website (currently members / investors access only)?
Mark