terrym

We have all heard people banging on about being taxed out of existance in the UK, me being one of them, and it appears to be a main reason for moving away for a lot of people, as well as life style.

Has anyone out there got an idea of what taxes are like in aus? it would be interesting to see the averages,ie; income tax, council taxes, medicare etc.

Cheers.

Grayling

Start here Terry:
http://www.ato.gov.au/default.asp?menu=298

Be prepared for a shock. Australian taxes are just as high as the UK.

G

ABCDiamond

Average Council tax/rates is about $430 per quarter including water usage.
I can quote three: $424, $ 427 & $ 434. 2 in Brisbane and 1 in NSW, so that's a good average average

Tax & Medicare on wages, you can check exact figures at the ATO site quoted, but some actual examples given are:
on 20,000 per year total deductions would be about 12%
on 45,000 per year total deductions would be about 23%

Peter

True for the most part though Australia's GST is lower than the UK's VAT(10% vs 17.5%).

Grayling

Very true but GST was only recently introduced.
When VAT was introduced in the UK it was a lot less than 17.5%.

It will be interesting to see what happens to GST in the long run.

G

cookies

Has anyone out there got an idea of what taxes are like in aus? it would be interesting to see the averages,ie; income tax, council taxes, medicare etc.

Cheers. [/QUOTE]

As far as taxes go, I would say there are no such things on averages! It all depends on your tastes, your incomes, number of kids, size of car, size of house etc. The tax is different over here, but I seem to be living quite well out here on a lower salary than I had in the UK.

The Aussies are good at giving money away though - In eight months so far I have had
- $7000 First home grant
-$2400 Child bonus from the govt - I have 4 kids
-I get a couple of hundered dollars a fortnight Family Assistance
- I just did my tax and am getting a $1800 dollar refund - don't ask me how!

Steve

cresta57

The higher tax bracket kicks in sooner here it seems to catch a lot more of the manual workers than in the U.K. Could just be that I'm working far to hard and should take a leaf out of the other subbies books and go fishing on the weekend [which seems to start on a thursday arvo ]

As far as taxes go, I would say there are no such things on averages! It all depends on your tastes, your incomes, number of kids, size of car, size of house etc. The tax is different over here, but I seem to be living quite well out here on a lower salary than I had in the UK.

The Aussies are good at giving money away though - In eight months so far I have had
- $7000 First home grant
-$2400 Child bonus from the govt - I have 4 kids
-I get a couple of hundered dollars a fortnight Family Assistance
- I just did my tax and am getting a $1800 dollar refund - don't ask me how!

Steve[/QUOTE]

ABCDiamond

Top tax bracket of 47% kicks in at $70,000 per year.
But then you have to add the medicare levy of 1.5%.

A few more examples of maximum tax payables, without allowing for any of the many deductions allowable

Gross............. Tax & Medicare.....net %
$ 65,000.00...... $18,982.00 ... 29.2%
$ 71,000.00 ... $21,952.00 ... 30.9%
$100,000.00 ... $36,307.00 ... 36.3%

Allowable deductions include things such as Suncream and sunglasses if you work outside, laundry costs, self education expenses, Union fees, overtime meals, etc etc....

cresta57

That explains why the brickies all have the latest raybans

kirsty&al

When doing a comparison, dont forget about the 9% NIC in the UK. Most people forget this and this makes the UK tax look a lot less. However, generally, tax seems to be higher in Oz than in the UK, but this is compensated by lower costs and lower GST/VAT.

My council tax for year is about $1100, which I don't have to pay until Feb 2005. Haven't had a water bill yet.

Cheers
Al.

terrym

Blimey!

Can of worms springs to mind, but thats taxes for you I suppose!

Thanks for the replies.

Terry

JAJ

I think NIC is now 11% in the UK. It definitely makes Australian taxes look less prohibitive than the UK.

As someone else has noted, indirect taxation is less in Australia. Not just GST at 10% vs 17.5%, but petrol tax is a fraction of what's charged in the UK.

Australia also does not have any inheritance tax.

Jeremy

Siren & Brian

Yet !!!!!

JAJ

It's before my time in Australia, but I believe Australian states *used* to levy death duties. I recall reading these were first abolished by Queensland in the 1960s or 70s and the other states followed suit.

Jeremy