Am I alone in starting to find this all a bit unseemly? Expats plotting ways to avoid paying any tax here at home, but at the same time asserting the right to retire here (free of tax of course) when they've racked up a nest egg of suitable size overseas?
And then we get the lecture from Metro Man:
There are many expats like me who will drop Australia like a hot potato if you back us into a corner. Then you won’t see anything, not even GST revenue.
Thanks for the threats, but if that's your attitude, why don't you stay away? A few cashed up old Cathay captains returning from Hong Kong to their properties on the Gold Coast is hardly going to reverse the brain drain you know. If you were a cancer researcher or a mining engineer then maybe, but if you suck $1000p.a from Medicare then you're only just going to pay your own way in GST - so spare us the sanctimoniousness about the tax system here. Those of us who are actually building and funding the society that you plan to retire in (after proudly contributing nothing in tax for the previous 30 years) are too busy working to listen to your whingeing.
Sorry - having re-read the above, it was maybe a bit harsh (cuppla nice Barossa reds gets me fired up.) I've got no objection at all to you living offshore - and if you choose to do so, then I'd agree that you shouldn't have to pay income tax while you're away. But with rights come obligations. If you want to continue to be Australian, and you want to spend your twilight years here, then I think it's only fair that you pony up a bit of the freight that's going to be involved in carrying you once you come home. Your protestations to the contrary, hardly anyone is a fully self-funded retiree - everyone gets the benefits of Medicare, pensioner travel and concessional tax treatment.
We all know about the demographic challenge - it's going to be hard enough for the next generations to support those of us who are working here now, let alone the returnees who think they're entitled to a free ride because they've got a passport with an emu on it......so go easy eh?
That's only my 20 cents worth though. Enjoy Hong Kong.
SW