Work overseas / thread closed

[EML]

I recall the news feeds from the Premiers conference called when the GST was first mooted. They all headed to Canberra to blow off their collective anger at the then Prime Minister ( Howard?) They all hated the idea and wanted it canned. By 10.00am when they came down for morning tea, they were all smiles a mile wide....they had been told what they stood to gain and how much cash was going to enter the coffers, on it's way to Canberra. They were stoked and so they should have been.
The question we all need to ask is "where the fork is all the money?" They have collected much more in the interim years than we will ever know...and they have spent/wasted the lot!! We pay more now than ever by way of stealth taxes and still we struggle to pay off foreign debt. or fix anything. We can't keep the roads safe and schools and the like are now paid for by parents...more so than ever.
They need to be called to account.
 

[Sorelegs11]

Unfortunately we have too many NON PRODUCERS employed by governments these days.
You only have to look at the layers of red tape involved in acheiving a result in anything.
We have too many academics creating jobs for other academics.
It costs nearly as much for a "feasability study" as it does to complete the project, and lets not forget the all important environmental study.
I remember a time when an engineer would design a bridge, an accountant would cost the project and a team of 100 would build it. These days the number of shiny bums involed in the process outnumbers the blokes that actually build it.
No wonder nothing gets done.

[Davey Crocket]

People forget the States get the GST and the Fed's get the wages tax.....giving money to ex union labour government people is like feeding chickens to crocodiles....it's gone in one swoop never to be seen or accounted for ever again.....most of these people struggle to count there fingers and toes and yet they are put in charge of billions of dollars of taxpayers money. If these people where made accountable for there actions they would all be in jail. The whole system is corrupt and because of that the system always needs to be fed more money, so every year they slug us with raises and new ways of taxing us either directly or indirectly.

[Nathan S]

Unfortunately we have too many NON PRODUCERS employed by governments these days.
You only have to look at the layers of red tape involved in acheiving a result in anything.
We have too many academics creating jobs for other academics.
It costs nearly as much for a "feasability study" as it does to complete the project, and lets not forget the all important environmental study.
I remember a time when an engineer would design a bridge, an accountant would cost the project and a team of 100 would build it. These days the number of shiny bums involed in the process outnumbers the blokes that actually build it.
No wonder nothing gets done.

That inefficiency is the price we pay for demanding efficiency and accountability...

Look at the post-GFC stimulus: it was specifically stated that the main purpose was to get cash out there, without getting bogged down in the details of trying to wrangle the best possible deal - six years later, we're still bitching about "the waste"...

Similarly, all of that "red tape" and "green tape" that we love to hate, was created for a reason. Maybe those reasons are outdated, or were crap in the first place - but simply dismissing it as "red (or green) tape" without considering those reasons is begging for the fork-up fairy to come and screw you somewhere very uncomfortable.

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Back on topic... I'm happy paying tax. In fact, I'd be happy to pay more.
I look around internationally, and there's a pretty solid correlation between tax paid and lifespan/crime rate/infant mortality/quality of life/etc.

And I'm not silly enough to think that those roads, schools, police service, hospitals, fire statation and all of the other things that are crucial to a functioning society, all just appeared magically without the input of our tax dollars...

[Davey Crocket]

Have you noticed that a lot of machine printed receipts fad really quickly?

[crash n bern]

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Back on topic... I'm happy paying tax. In fact, I'd be happy to pay more.

Can we assume you're being audited at the moment?

[Nathan S]

Can we assume you're being audited at the moment?

lol - but No.

Despite what you might have heard, taxation = prosperity. Look at all of the poorest countries in the world, and they all adhere to the 'small government, low taxation' model.
At the other end, look at Norway or Sweden for how it could work if we could get over the idiocy of hating taxation without considering what it gives us.

[Mike52]

Despite what you might have heard, taxation = prosperity. Look at all of the poorest countries in the world, and they all adhere to the 'small government, low taxation' model.
At the other end, look at Norway or Sweden for how it could work if we could get over the idiocy of hating taxation without considering what it gives us.

I personally didn't mind paying tax/GST/rates and so on until I looked at what the powers to be have been spending it on.

Now I'm not so sure.

[Sorelegs11]

Most people here hate tax because there tooo much of it and once you pay it it is wasted on crap like changing the style of the flower on the state emblem as a marketing exercise because some wanker told them they have to move with the times, the cost, a lousy $15 mill.
The bastards with their sin tax on beer have essentially taxed most of the old blokes social lives out of existence.
By the time you get thru your weekly spend I am guessing you have paid half of what you have earned in taxes.

If it makes you happy Nathan please feel free to pay my share, I am sure I'll get over it. 

[Ted]

Try and find the news story on Kerry Packer when investigated by the ATO.

quotes I recall:

" I will pay every cent I am liable for and not one cent extra "

" if I choose to legally minimise my tax liability I do so because you incompetents ( ATO ) have no fu... cking idea how to manage it "

[oldfart]

Nathan ... I think you have pretty well nailed it as far were the money goes .
" And I'm not silly enough to think that those roads, schools, police service, hospitals, fire statation and all of the other things that are crucial to a functioning society, all just appeared magically without the input of our tax dollars"

But sometimes you have to wounder why they are there ...... for the Countries benefit or theirs.

[oldfart]

Ted .....
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer. Reluctantly. When asked to state his full name and the capacity in which he appeared.

I am not evading tax in any way, shape or form. Now of course I am minimizing my tax and if anybody in this country doesn't minimize their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you're not spending it that well that we should be donating extra. Transcribed from the in-memoriam 2006 television show The Big Fella: The Extraodinary Life of Kerry Packer

I've already given you the answer on this subject, I have told you that I pay whatever tax I am required to pay under the law, not a penny more, not a penny less, and the suggestion that I am trying to evade tax, which is what you're putting forward, I find highly offensive and I don't intend to cooperate with you in the blackening of my character. Transcribed from the in-memoriam 2006 television show The Big Fella: The Extraodinary Life of Kerry

[Ted]

Ok, you quoted it , I recalled it. Same scenario.

[Nathan S]

Most people here hate tax because there tooo much of it and once you pay it it is wasted on crap like changing the style of the flower on the state emblem as a marketing exercise because some wanker told them they have to move with the times, the cost, a lousy $15 mill.
The bastards with their sin tax on beer have essentially taxed most of the old blokes social lives out of existence.
By the time you get thru your weekly spend I am guessing you have paid half of what you have earned in taxes.

If it makes you happy Nathan please feel free to pay my share, I am sure I'll get over it. 

No matter what, there will be someone complaining that it is "wasted".
A government basically a parent with 23 million teenagers - everyone has their hand out, everyone thinks their 'need' is greater than everyone elses'.

Until the people of Australia get our shit together and start having a sensible discussion about what our country's priorities are, how much they'll cost, whether we are prepared to pay for it, and how we'll pay for it, then we're dooming ourselves to continued stupidity.

Governments of both sides have failed us badly, because us voters demand cheap, instant gratification.

[Ted]

You are right there Wasp. Grew a patch in the old mans shed some 40 years ago. It effectively saved taxable income, it was fun, got all my mates involved and as far as healthy.......well we are all still alive