Government bending us over

[DDXR6T]

After a few thoughts recently, i decided to have a decent look at the sort of money the government makes from us hard working aussies.

I mean, were paying taxes, GST, Fuel excise ... the list goes on and on.

Pay - My last paycheck - $1788 (fortnightly). Of this, $406 gets taxed.

Fuel - I average about 60-65 litres of fuel in the car per week ... With the governments excise being approx 55c per litre, the thieves take another $35 from my wallet, so $70 a fortnight

GST - Everything we buy anywhere, whether it be a chocolate bar, a pack of condoms or some toilet paper we also get taxed 10% on. So lets work on $100 spent per week ... $10 a week, so $20 a fornight.

Registration - I pay $178 every 3 months. Not to mention the actual registration fee is only $40, and the rest is CTP insurance (which I dont need having full comp) and admin fees!

Not to mention Speeding fines and other infringements that may accidentally occur with 0% lenience from the enforcers.

Im getting sick of it ... I know everyone pays it, but still I'm rapidly growing tired of it! I'll probably see sweet FA back from that too ... So much for working more to get ahead.

I keep hearing of "tax cuts, tax cuts" and seems people in my bracket save about $12 bucks a week, with higher earners saving $120?! Little Johnnie Howard doesnt mind though, in his cheauferred Statesman, with his free tax funded meals, his free tickets to sporting events and his massive mansion all probably paid for via tax-payers. And i wont even start on his IR laws that now make my 2 year stable job seem somewhat un-stable!

Anyone else?

[XA-Coupe]

The tax on vaselene is going up as we need more of it these days.

[Bluefreak]

The fuel excise is only 38c/L(fixed) so there, I just saved you $20.60 a fortnight...

[olfella]

You left out the medicare levy... then paying to belonging to a health fund... out:

[MoreHPformyXR6]

Originally Posted by Bluefreak

The fuel excise is only 38c/L(fixed) so there, I just saved you $20.60 a fortnight...

But the collect GST so if we say its $1.40 per lite at the pump (14c is GST) 38c excess 14c GST = 52c per lite for the Govt.

[70caprigt3k]

I looked at my pay check today and i lost $134 to tax plus another $41 to super which the government ultimately takes quite a healthy sum out of anyway so in total thats $175 which may not seem like alot but the fact is i worked my *** off for and even put in overtime for only to have some ***** in a suit take it off me and spend it on something that half the time i dont want or need i mean if it actually is helpful in some way i.e. fixing roads, medical research etc. etc. but no doubt it will end up going to some drug fooked dropkick loser who sits on his *** all day waiting for another handout, but hey the government knows best right?

*edit* I feel somewhat better now :

[Scott]

Understand your frustration, there are another 20 million of us with the same gripe, but what's wrong with higher earners saving the $120 you mentioned?

[Yummy Mummy]

The IR laws only affect you if you sign a new contract under that legislation. Anyone in employment prior to the legislation being passed isn't affected by the changes.

Other than that, I agree wholeheartedly.

[T_Terror]

I feel your pain.

The more money you make the more others seem to want a piece of.

i remember when i was a student. Noone wanted anything cause i had nothing to be taken.

Now as a fulltime worker i get letters from people demanding thousands of dollars. Outrageous!@

[ltd]

Reminds me of a bumper sticker.

The Australian Taxation Office
"We've got what it takes to take what you've got."

[GCFordChic]

A double degree (law and business) over 5 years at around $7500 a year (luckily i'm a pre-2006 student otherwise it would be about a grand more) I will owe the government around $35000. Good-bye to tax returns for many years to come.

To think my parents generation (esentially the majority of the government) got tertiary education for free, and now they believe i am not paying enough and are pushing to make me pay more.

Not to mention i cant get a job-searcher number to go to a job agency and get help finding a different mind-numbing job for my next 2 and a half years i will need to support myself at uni. Why? Because i am a full-time uni student. According to my government i dont need a part-time job. WELL GIVE MY BLOODY TAX BACK! :

btw Kind and generous Gold Coast Lawyers, i'm looking for a part-time job, i can file, answer phones.....lol : :

[brenx]

You'd hate my recent pay then. I just paid $3062 tax for the last fortnight. This year I got a $510 tax reduction. Whoopee! I hope to claim most of my lost earnings (tax's) back.

[qwigybo]

i wish i paid half of that in tax haha
oh no wait i did it's a joke. anyone see the report of the front page of the herald sun today about the fuel excise

[Dodge]

the best thing is the gov hands out aid money these days like its lollies, 3 million here 2 million there a billion over to some third world country , no problem, but if ur late paying ur taxes here u get nailed like u commited a crime.
also who the bloddy hell pays a CEO the millions of dollars to run a company ,then if they fail they take a further payout to go back OS .
i still think we all as a nation tell the gov and the councils what we are going to give them not what they are taking. with billions in their bank and plenty more comming in each 1/4 they still keep jacking up the price of living .

[ON_DUBS]

tax boycott anyone?

[XRchic]

Originally Posted by FAIRMONT4.0

tax boycott anyone?

That'd be smart...

Then what would pay for the roads we drive on, the hospitals we go to (and the equipment in then, the staff in them) for free (ie you dont get a bill when you go there), the schools your kids go to (and the teachers who teach them), the police who turn up to your door when someone has broken in and a bunch of other stuff.

If you dont want to pay taxes, go live in a country where there are none and see what the quality of life is like there.

Im not saying that the government provides us with everything we need to the standards we require, as there are waiting lists in hospitals and there are large class sizes in public schools, but overall we are still a lot better off than many countries who have a much less invasive taxation system.

Oh and I am also paying a heap of HECS and also Supplement Austudy Loan repayments as well, but I figure that I have at least contributed somewhat to the cost of what I used and that without my degrees, I would never earn as much as I do now, even considering the HECS etc. I think there could be a better system, for sure, but I dont believe in getting everything for free.

No one likes paying taxes and excise and all that sort of thing, but I think many lose sight of where the money actually goes most of the time. Dont start about politicians pay either, because most of you wouldnt do their job for that money.

Not a perfect system perhaps, yes. But its better than many around the world.

[4Vman]

Dont get me wrong, i hate paying TAX, but where exactly does everyone think the money goes????!! some big pot at the end of Howards bed?

Come on guys, look around you, OUR money is being spent back on us.
Reduce TAX and you reduce spending on services and benefits, and people will moan more...
Its not a perfect system, and you'll never please everyone, but id rather live here under this system than anywhere else in the world.

[max]

A while back I noticed a politician pull up next to me at the lights in a chauffeur driven CofA G220. Felt like winding down the window and asking him if he's an AFF member. If not why not join? Lot's of things to get involved with, assisting with member queries in the Bar.

[gtfpv]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Dont get me wrong, i hate paying TAX, but where exactly does everyone think the money goes????!! some big pot at the end of Howards bed?

Come on guys, look around you, OUR money is being spent back on us.
Reduce TAX and you reduce spending on services and benefits, and people will moan more...
Its not a perfect system, and you'll never please everyone, but id rather live here under this system than anywhere else in the world.

one thing we agree on , i actually dont mind paying my taxes . when people try to sell me investments and property , to pay interest rates to a bank instead , i tell them but my tax is going to society , not a bank, in the hope that i will get more for me. ( WHICH I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST ) but they just dont understand my replies. its not all about me being rich.
but yeah i also agree with the 1st post . :

[FTE217]

Oh my another whinge Thread ! Getting sound more and more like Poms.

[4.9 EF Futura]

Lol. You've got to be kidding me, right?!?!?!?

Ever heard the saying "death and taxes" ?? Or do you plan on living forever as well as complaining about your tax expense?

What exactly do you think they do with the money? A picture is worth a thousand words:



But let me guess - you'll be damned if you'll let them get away with spending cuts on welfare, health and education?

We live in a nanny state. If you get fired - the government will give you money. If you break your leg - the government will pay someone to fix it.

How do you propose we fund such an amazing standard of life? Just print more money?!?!?

Unbelievable.

Now to pull the uni students up!

Yes - a free education would be nice. Sunshine and lollipops are nice as well. Now you realise of course that the money checked against your HECS/HELP/whatever its called a CONTRIBUTION? The actual cost of funding your place is approximately 300% of what you pay through HECS.

Someone offers you the opportunity to go to uni without having to pay uprfont and you slap them back in the face and about it? Why dont you try pulling the same shyte in the USA? $100,000 upfront should get you started.

Without HECS i simply couldnt afford to go to uni. My folks didnt have money to spend on that kind of luxury. So im happy to see $100 stripped out of my pay every fortnight to go towards HECS.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

Lol. You've got to be kidding me, right?!?!?!?

Ever heard the saying "death and taxes" ?? Or do you plan on living forever as well as complaining about your tax expense?

What exactly do you think they do with the money? A picture is worth a thousand words:



But let me guess - you'll be damned if you'll let them get away with spending cuts on welfare, health and education?

We live in a nanny state. If you get fired - the government will give you money. If you break your leg - the government will pay someone to fix it.

How do you propose we fund such an amazing standard of life? Just print more money?!?!?

Unbelievable.

Now to pull the uni students up!

Yes - a free education would be nice. Sunshine and lollipops are nice as well. Now you realise of course that the money checked against your HECS/HELP/whatever its called a CONTRIBUTION? The actual cost of funding your place is approximately 300% of what you pay through HECS.

Someone offers you the opportunity to go to uni without having to pay uprfont and you slap them back in the face and about it? Why dont you try pulling the same shyte in the USA? $100,000 upfront should get you started.

Without HECS i simply couldnt afford to go to uni. My folks didnt have money to spend on that kind of luxury. So im happy to see $100 stripped out of my pay every fortnight to go towards HECS.

Thanks for that, an excellent post!
The American college system is an interesting one, nearly 1000 large Univerity sized tertiary facilities over there, it costs a small fortune to attend.
Our system is like a personal loan making it much more acessable.

[XRchic]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

Lol. You've got to be kidding me, right?!?!?!?

Ever heard the saying "death and taxes" ?? Or do you plan on living forever as well as complaining about your tax expense?

What exactly do you think they do with the money? A picture is worth a thousand words:



But let me guess - you'll be damned if you'll let them get away with spending cuts on welfare, health and education?

We live in a nanny state. If you get fired - the government will give you money. If you break your leg - the government will pay someone to fix it.

How do you propose we fund such an amazing standard of life? Just print more money?!?!?

Unbelievable.

Now to pull the uni students up!

Yes - a free education would be nice. Sunshine and lollipops are nice as well. Now you realise of course that the money checked against your HECS/HELP/whatever its called a CONTRIBUTION? The actual cost of funding your place is approximately 300% of what you pay through HECS.

Someone offers you the opportunity to go to uni without having to pay uprfont and you slap them back in the face and about it? Why dont you try pulling the same shyte in the USA? $100,000 upfront should get you started.

Without HECS i simply couldnt afford to go to uni. My folks didnt have money to spend on that kind of luxury. So im happy to see $100 stripped out of my pay every fortnight to go towards HECS.

Exactly!

Originally Posted by Bluedriver

Oh my another whinge Thread ! Getting sound more and more like Poms.

I agree Maurie, I think Aussies are a cross between whingers and tall poppy cutters and I dont really like either.

I think people take too much for granted in this country.

A friend of mine was from Malaysia. Her and her siblings came out here years ago but her mother wasnt allowed out for health reasons. Australian govt didnt want to bear the cost of her medical treatment. I guess this decision was made on behalf of taxpayers who would fund it, because Aussie taxpayers whine about paying too much as it is!

Anyway, my friend and her family had to go back to Malaysia to take care of their Mum who had bowel cancer. She was in a horrible old Malaysian hospital which had rats running around, holes in the walls, and was generally disgusting.

They had to pay doctors and nurses to take care of her, like literally pay for them by the hour. They had to pay rent for their Mum to stay in the hospital, much like a very expensive hotel. They had to buy medications, dressings, drips and linen from elsewhere and supply them all themselves, at REAL costs - some of the medications cost $1000s!

When they ran out of money, my mate and her siblings had to clean their Mum's bum, clean her dressings and wounds, refill her drips and basically take care of her because they couldnt afford to pay others to do it.

They paid some dodgy doctor $30 000 to operate on her, and when she was returned to the ward after surgery, they found that the doctor was not properly qualified for surgery and that he had just sewn up the operation site wound by just stitching the skin over the top of the site and leave the rest of the layers underneath open and not closed up! She got a massive infection, went into a coma and died. My mate and her siblings had to clean their mother's body up and take it to the morgue themselves.

Malaysia has no income tax and not much by way of other taxes. It seems that you get what you pay for. My friend said that her mother would have been happy to pay taxes to get what life that her children had in Australia.

In Australia, if that had happened, she would have been operated on and saved and probably recovered within days and been able to leave the hospital without being a cent out of pocket and with a lot less suffering.

If you want to pay no taxes, go to a country where there are none and see how long you last without all the things you have now and seem to want for free!

[AWD Chaser]

What about the fact the Johnnies wife just spent $12,500 updating the crockery set at home?

What about the fact that we as tax payers actually pay for John Howard to furnish and live in two houses (Kirabily House, and The Lodge)

In the ACT, they just put in a cycle lane from Woden to Weston Creek (about 5-10k's). This is one of those green lanes on the road. Some how, it cost a few million dollars, yet I only ever see about 2 or 3 cyclists a week on it, and the fact that there is a perfectly good cycle track off road, right next to it?!?!?!

I agree about paying taxes, but I can assure you that there are quite a few wasted millions.

[4.9 EF Futura]

Originally Posted by au3 chaser

I agree about paying taxes, but I can assure you that there are quite a few wasted millions.

Unfortunately its inevitable. Government doing the work itself is bound for inefficiancies - hence the move towards private tenders in recent decades.

Unfortunately all the treasurer can do is allocate how the money will be spent... those charged with implementation are often the ones who make a meal of it - at a state and a federal level.

What about the fact the Johnnies wife just spent $12,500 updating the crockery set at home?

Lol. Who cares? I dont know how that side of things works but i assume it was within "the rules". I'm more interested in the millions of welfare payments going to those making fraudulent applications @ Centrelink...

[ltd]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

Lol. You've got to be kidding me, right?!?!?!?

Ever heard the saying "death and taxes" ?? Or do you plan on living forever as well as complaining about your tax expense?

What exactly do you think they do with the money? A picture is worth a thousand words:



But let me guess - you'll be damned if you'll let them get away with spending cuts on welfare, health and education?

We live in a nanny state. If you get fired - the government will give you money. If you break your leg - the government will pay someone to fix it.

How do you propose we fund such an amazing standard of life? Just print more money?!?!?

Unbelievable.

Now to pull the uni students up!

Yes - a free education would be nice. Sunshine and lollipops are nice as well. Now you realise of course that the money checked against your HECS/HELP/whatever its called a CONTRIBUTION? The actual cost of funding your place is approximately 300% of what you pay through HECS.

Someone offers you the opportunity to go to uni without having to pay uprfont and you slap them back in the face and about it? Why dont you try pulling the same shyte in the USA? $100,000 upfront should get you started.

Without HECS i simply couldnt afford to go to uni. My folks didnt have money to spend on that kind of luxury. So im happy to see $100 stripped out of my pay every fortnight to go towards HECS.

Absolutely brilliant.

And lets not forget that most of the infrastructure in and around canberra is the local state governments domain - not the federal.

Same as all state governments. They p1ss money away on stupid crap, then moan that they ran out of money. They are as useful as the artificial appendix. Get rid of the states and save some money there.

[olfella]

Originally Posted by ltd

Absolutely brilliant.

And lets not forget that most of the infrastructure in and around canberra is the local state governments domain - not the federal.

Same as all state governments. They p1ss money away on stupid crap, then moan that they ran out of money. They are as useful as the artificial appendix. Get rid of the states and save some money there.

Im with you - lets get rid of the states and let the feds look after our health and education systems. I reckon they are an extravagance we can do without... :

[fangq]

[QUOTE=4.9 EF Futura]Lol. You've got to be kidding me, right?!?!?!?

Ever heard the saying "death and taxes" ?? Or do you plan on living forever as well as complaining about your tax expense?

What exactly do you think they do with the money? A picture is worth a thousand words:

snip

It sure is

Politicians use a lot of our tax monies to bribe us to vote for 'em .
I'd love to see voluntary voting ( i,e no more marginal seats..work for every vote, and no focused pork barreling ), and indexed for inflation tax scales every year.

Steve
btw..always wondered how compulsory voting and dollars per vote ( yes..the pollies do get that ) got around contravening the Electoral Act.
It's an offence to bribe a politician or offer them pecuniary gain, but they can obtain the same result via the punters votes.

[olfella]

Originally Posted by fangq

Politicians use a lot of our tax monies to bribe us to vote for 'em .
I'd love to see voluntary voting ( i,e no more marginal seats..work for every vote, and no focused pork barreling ), and indexed for inflation tax scales every year.

Steve
btw..always wondered how compulsory voting and dollars per vote ( yes..the pollies do get that ) got around contravening the Electoral Act.
It's an offence to bribe a politician or offer them pecuniary gain, but they can obtain the same result via the punters votes.

And another thing while I have a chance... The only good thing the yanks have that we need is compulsary terms for the head man... Little johnny is getting a bit cocky in the hen house me thinks - and I know, it happened to Keating ...

[MightyXR6Turbo]

Originally Posted by olfella

And another thing while I have a chance... The only good thing the yanks have that we need is compulsary terms for the head man... Little johnny is getting a bit cocky in the hen house me thinks - and I know, it happened to Keating ...

How is getting Cocky? We keep voting him in, thus he continues to govern the country.

And how on earth did it happen to Keating? He stabbed Hawke in the back after an election, then got ousted on the next election. Funny that.. haha