Aussie Expat Tax Made Easy

Buying property in Australia from overseas can be fun, exciting, and sometimes stressful if you're not sure what you're looking for. Knowing your options when it comes to earning a foreign income and buying property in Australia is important when living abroad. Australian Expat with property investments in Australia may receive benefits such as rental income and may enjoy a number of amazing tax benefits whilst working overseas. Of course, many expats may require a home loan to enable them to invest in property whilst abroad.

Expat home loans typically require a higher deposit than others, since the idea is to make the mortgage payments as low and affordable as possible. When dealing with LVRs, or "Loan to Value Ratios," it's essential that you know in advance how much you plan on putting down on your property to secure your loan. Some lenders and financial institutions will suggest that there is a strict requirement of 80% LVR on purchases of property in Australia.

However, specialist mortgage lenders with the proper knowledge and connections can assist you in getting a higher LVR percentage to avoid losing capital and the benefits of being the holder of an expat home loan in Australia. The variable loan LVRs depend upon on your citizenship status, with consideration given to whether you are seeking a loan as an Australian citizen living overseas, a temporary resident, non-resident, or in Australia with a different kind of travel visa.

There are a number of benefits when it comes to having an Expat home loan on your property while living overseas and working abroad. In addition to retaining ownership of your home, you can rent it out to someone (even a person travelling abroad on a visa) and earn rental income while still keeping your home for when you return from living abroad. You also receive some aussie expat tax benefits, and can help keep your investment growing in Australia's strong and stable economy.

No matter what your reasons, it is important to know that even if you are aussie expat who has left the country to work overseas and live abroad, you still own your investment back home and can even earn extra income after your expat home loan payments.

As with the cost of living in Australia, the cost of property in many of the more sought-after areas and cities has increased dramatically over the years. However, this has more than been offset by an increase in employment income for those skilled workers moving to Australia and taking up positions were there have been shortfalls in the domestic Australian employment market. As you might expect we are starting to see many of the larger cities and more sought-after areas expand outwards as property prices continue to move higher in the centre and buyers look for more value on the outskirts.

Down the road, it is sometimes beneficial to refinance your home to make the payments more manageable and allow you more spendable cash each month from your budget. However, when going it alone in the home mortgage industry, sometimes you may not think ahead enough to consider your options if you decide to refinance the loan later on down the road.