Paying tax - why?

I received my tax assessment today. Before you stop reading - tax is hardly the most thrilling subject - I want to talk about what else was in the envelope.

There's a tax receipt which explains where my tax dollars were spent. It shows how much and what it was spent on. I think this is an excellent way to educate about the value of paying tax, but for some reason it feels like a cynical exercise.

The first thing I noted was that the level of Australian Government gross debt has increased from $257 billion to $320 billion. That increase has happened under PM Abbott and Treasurer Hockey who used to talk about a "debt and deficit emergency" but now they say there isn't one.

Unsurprisingly, welfare is the biggest proportion and payments to unemployed people is the smallest share (apart from "other").

Health is second highest, then the list gets interesting. Defence received more of my tax dollars than education ($5 more to be precise). I'd like to know more about health spending - for example how much of it goes on subsidising private health insurance for people with money compared to mental health services.

Recreation and culture gets the smallest amount. Luckily I prop them up by paying to go to art galleries, concerts, plays and other cultural activities.

Any mention of the environment is screamingly absent and I can only hope that some of the money going to "fuel and energy" is for development of renewable energy.

There's more information on the website. I love their commitment to plainspeaking:

Understanding tax

Australians pay tax so the government can provide services to the community.

Good to know.

Immigration is the category that upsets me because I know that I have no choice but to financially contribute to the immigration detention centres where innocent people are kept in concentration camps.

I wonder what would happen if tax payers could direct where our share of taxes was spent? I know that it wouldn't necessarily be practical, but it would be interesting to ask people. My decisions would be very different from those of the current government, but I don't resent paying tax.

Thanks to the Australian Government for the information!

Not if you're poor

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey says that poor people don't have cars and if they do, they don't drive them much as justification for increases in the fuel excise.

I hope his press secretary is furious, but we've been lucky to gain insight into how our Treasurer thinks.

We've just learned that if you're "poor" in Australia, the Treasurer is working to keep you down, not lift you up. It seems that if Hockey is right and you're poor and don't have a car, his policies are not going to help you get a car or afford fuel if you do have a car. You are dismissed.

How about the poor people who live in outer suburbs or regional areas away from good public transport infrastructure? Life will get harder. Put this together with proposed job search requirements for people receiving unemployment benefits and the burden just got heavier.

$510.50 is the maximum fortnightly Newstart Allowance payment for a single person with no dependents. I guess that qualifies you as "poor" if you have no other resources. And don't forget if you're under 30 years old, the Abbott Government proposes no financial support for you for six months if you're not "earning or learning". I suppose if you have no income at all, you'd be considered poor.

People driving cars aren't the only people paying fuel excise. How about the trucks that deliver our food and other goods and services? These increased costs will surely flow on to the community where poor people live and need to eat and clothe themselves and send their kids to school.

Regardless of the underpinning policy merits of taxing petrol, it's awful to hear such contempt being displayed to people who are struggling. I don't expect to agree with much that the Abbott Goverment says or does, but I do expect the people who have been elected to govern, do so for ALL people, not just the rich.

The sound of procrastination and tax avoidance

Did you hear that sound today?  It was the sound of people (ie me and at least two other people I know) procrastinating.

The subject of procrastination was the completion of the BAS for the ATO which tracks how much GST has been collected by your business.  That amount is balanced against how much GST you've spent on business related purchases.  Then you balance that against your sales for the quarter and discover how much you need to pay the ATO or how much they need to pay you.  They've never paid me anything.

There are far too many acronyms in that paragraph...*

Despite having systems to make the process easier, when I receive the envelope with the notice, I dutifully mark the due date in the diary and then proceed to avoid it until the day before it is due to be submitted.  Then I spend a whole Sunday resenting the fact that I have to spend a whole Sunday on tax and then I nearly run out of time because cleaning the bathroom is suddenly a very appealing activity.

That's what procrastination sounds like - the bathrooms in the homes of small business owners being cleaned.  The oven suddenly looked like an appealing prospect for attention at about 11:30 today.  Or I could have alphabetised my spices.  Or cleared the spare room.  Actually with four BAS's to complete in a year I should be able to sort out my spare room...Even an emergency trip to the dentist would have been fun.

Usually I'm not one to procrastinate; I just do whatever needs to be done.  When it comes to anything to do with tax though I have a mental block.  Thank goodness I do have some kind of system or it would be hell.  I have noticed that the due date for completion of the BAS corresponds to desk cleaning and filing day.  Something should be done about that.

It's not that it's difficult.  It's just that I could be doing more interesting things.  Like vacuuming the ceiling or cleaning the skirting boards.

Bernard Black, proprietor of the bookstore in the comedy "Black Books" gives tax avoidance a new meaning in the very first episode.  He is supposed to be doing his tax, but is gripped by creative procrastination - he pairs an enormous pile of socks, covers himself in post-it notes, answers the door and invites the Jehovah's Witnesses in for discussion and a cuppa.  I know exactly how he feels!

What's your preferred procrastination activity?

*BAS - Business Activity Statement
ATO - Australian Tax Office
GST - Goods and Services Tax

How did I ever have time to work full time?

The question I've been asking myself lately is "how did I ever have time to work full time?"  Seriously.  I don't know how I ever managed to get anything done! How did I ever make anything; read anything; write anything; see anyone; play anything; pay anyone; clean anything; calculate anything? Oh that's right, those last two items I still struggle with.

This afternoon I've been doing my BAS* for the Tax Office so that I can work out how much goods and services tax I've collected for them and pay it back.  It bores me stupid.  For a little while I convinced myself that I loved being systematic and working the fabulous spreadsheet that my more fabulous accountant set up for me.  This afternoon I discovered that I have been lying to myself and to everyone else about this.  I still hate it.  Putting numbers in columns and cross checking the little pieces of paper, with their faded printing, that pass as receipts these days, updating my car usage in my special diary is just so DULL.  Even the thrill of seeing how much money I've earned during the quarter was not enough to make it all shiny and satisfying again.

When I first started out on this business venture, I knew that I would need to have a really easy, uncomplicated and appealing system to use to keep all my records in order.  If I didn't start this way, there was a chance that the tax office would be looking for me a few years in the future and I'd probably be hiding in a cave somewhere because the disarray and volume of paper would just be too much.

That theory was right and I was very diligent early on.  Then I became extremely busy: flying all over the countryside, stopping at home long enough only to wash my clothes and repack my suitcase.  Travel for work generates paper like no other activity I've ever been involved in.  I started this busy period by clipping them all together and putting them aside to be entered into the spreadsheet next time I was home.  I did this a few times until there was a teetering pile.  The pile teetered right off the edge of the table and with another round of travel looming, along with the deadline for lodgement of my BAS coinciding with this time, I knew I had to tackle it today.

For almost three hours, I've sat chained to my desk.  It's done now and the payment is set up and everything, but I don't feel a sense of achievement.  I feel like I've been cheated of quality time I could have spent doing something else more interesting and invigorating.  And now I've started the recriminating conversation with myself. "You can't let it get out of control again".  "Just do it whenever you have a receipt - it's easier to do one or two at the time." Blah, blah, blah.  I know, I know, I know.

The only thing that makes sure I do it is the fear of further tedious conversations with the tax office.  If I could be assured I'd never have to do that again, I'd sit down with my spreadsheet all the time.  Well maybe that's an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

So today, I've done nothing else. Well I've done a few things.  I managed to do a couple of loads of washing and dry them.  They're now piled on the couch until further notice.  I ate breakfast and lunch.  I've picked up equipment for tomorrow's workshop.  The washing up from yesterday is still sitting in the drainer on the sink.  I have no idea what I'm going to eat for dinner.

Remind me: how did I ever have time to work full time?  I don't know how I ever got anything done!

*BAS = Business Activity Statement