Category: Tax Policy
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The Commissioner and the good Samaritan
I am one of those Jesus freaks so when i hear about “good samaritan laws” – being those that compel a person to help or be penalised – i think they missed the whole idea of what made him good. That he was not compelled but did it out of love. Do you love the…
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The coffee is just awful!
Why are there no posts recently??? Disneyworld, Legoland and the Kennedy Space Centre… But the worst thing about being in Florida according to my wife is the coffee. And then she saw the answer – Starbucks. Due to tax, Starbucks should be good coffee. Why? Starbuck pays almost no tax in the US or Australia.…
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You think tax rates are bad in Australia?
Following the highest court in France upholding a 75% tax rate for incomes over €1 million, I started to look at whether I should start consulting in French… Un bagette merci… First, the 75% tax rate is payable where a group of employers pays an employee over €1 million and is payable BY THE EMPLOYER!…
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Government operating at its best
After answering six months of letters to a Minister in the last government this is exactly what you come across every day…
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The middle class welfare myth
Solve all our economic problems by cutting middle class welfare! Anyone who says this has never thought any more about this than whether the slogan sounds good… The Facts When people speak of middle class welfare, if they have any idea what they are talking about at all, they are generally talking about Family Tax…
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Is Australia a high or a low taxed country?
High or low is a relative measure. So if we compare ourselves to the Saudis we are a high taxed country but if we compare ourselves to the scandinavians we are in easy street. The economist tell me we should compare ourselves to the OECD and when we do we are low taxed – http://www.oecd.org/tax/tax-revenues-continue-to-rise-across-the-oecd.htm.…
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Announced but unenacted… a bit of clarity
In November the government announced (see http://axs.ministers.treasury.gov.au/media-release/003-2013/) it was not going ahead with caping self education deduction (limiting section 8-1 makes no sense), limiting the tax exemption on super pensions (impossible to calculate), removing section 25-90 (let the big end of town suffer) and repealing the statutory rate (pure politics in this – this is…
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Another go at closing salary packaged cars
One of the arguments presented by the salary packaging companies (please note these are companies that only exist due to the combination of a tax loophole and tricky marketing – https://taxrambling.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/the-post-the-salary-packagers-do-not-wanted-you-to-see/) is that removing the statutory method for calculating car fringe benefits would hurt the local car manufacturers. But by 2017 there will be no…
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Unpaid present entitlements to corporate beneficiaries
In December 2009 the Commissioner changed his position on unpaid present entitlements to corporate beneficiaries – claiming they became Division 7A loans after a year. I, like many people raised this with the Government and they said “wait for the final ruling”, “wait for the practice statement”, “wait for a NON EXISTANT test case” and…
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Another ridiculous tax policy… supported by every side
When there is change in government you hope they can dump all the stupid ideas of the previous government. But with the new government still needing to find savings stupid ideas seem not so stupid. In the May 2013 Budget the Labor (one day they might learn how to spell their party’s name) stead they…
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