Kiwipaul

Just read this in the local paper regarding the buget that has just been published.

The tax year here is June to June not April like in UK.

pommie bastard

Yeah and the average UK wage is 27k GBP ($68k), you dream on try working out the tax on both?
Plus the benefits here on the stopages to those in the UK.

jayr

On 27k GBP you'd take home 1790 GBP after tax per month

On $48k you'd take home $3316 (1326 GBP) after tax per month

Admittedly this is before the newly announced tax brackets, so throw in a sandwich and milkshake too. Anyway, this makes UK average 35% higher (take home) than Oz average.

Alternatively, if you earnt 27k GBP in Oz, i.e. $67.5k gross, you would take home $4032/month, or 1613GBP

So for the same gross income you would pay 177 GBP/month more in tax.

Oh and I ignored Medicare levy

Kiwipaul

The report didn't say wether that included Superannuation or not.

If it included Super they would first deduct ( think the rate is 9%) to go into your super fund before they start taxing you.

You'd also loose 1.5% for the medicare levy.

pommie bastard

For all these deductions what does the state not charge twice for , prey inform me?
PS super is taxed at 15 % going in and per year on earnings , plus taxed coming out.

jayr

True, and to be fair you'd need to include National Insurance deductons of 9% for the UK earnings

pommie bastard

Nice summing up of the Buget by a local chap.




THE maxim power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is as true about governments in their civil administration as it is about despots.

After the success of the Howard Government's stand on Iraq, we now see it taking advantage of the power it has won over the Opposition to force its user-pays ideology on the weak and defenceless of the Australian people and applying this ideology to undermine the universal health-care system.

They seem to be driven to pursue their time-warped ideologies as if their very existence depended on it and, like Alice, they have to run very fast to stand still - or they will just fade away.

What is it that drives them down such self-destructive and unpopular roads? Is it - as they would like us to believe - their altruistic concerns for the economy, which never seem to bother them when their mates set bad examples by ripping the economy off to feather their nests or when they give plum jobs to their shyster mates?

No, what we are seeing is just another revamp of the golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules. In fact, just another example of a power-abused two-fingered gesture by the ruling clique to the people saying: "I'm all right Jack. Up yours."

D. P. BANNER, Coolbellup.

etlniwd

A single person in the UK contracted into SERPS would not take home £1790. You can't decide whether or not to pay NI. After deducting NI the take pay would be £1672.38 for the 2002/2003 tax year.

The Australian equivalent of NI is included in the income tax deductions. The medicare levy (stealth tax) doesn't cover all the medicare costs. However, unlike the UK where health cover (except most dentistry) is free, us Australians have to pay when we go to the doctor.

jayr

Which still compares favourably to take home on $67.5k and very well in comparison to the actual average Oz salary. Higher salries compare even worse of course due to the 48.5% marginal rate (incl Medicare)

Don

But what if you looked at take home pay on the basis of purchasing power parity? Forget the BBQs, beaches, surfing, tinnies and laughs with your Aus mates, year-round suntan - wouldn't your take home pay just plain buy you more goods and services in Australia than in UK (and get you a better house with a swimming pool too)?

Cheers - Don

WizOfOz

Well said pleasancefamily.

While reading all your posts I found myself thinking "has anybody considered the cost of living?" ....

Look, I know things have changed in the last 4 years, but since then I reside in Germany, earn a little more than triple the OZ avg salary reported above but have (I would say) only a 1:1.5 ratio in a better lifestyle of when I was in OZ (4 years ago) earning exactly that average!!

Ciao.

dotty

I think the cost of living in OZ is underestimated. Often perceived as cheaper as people with stronger currencies think of what their money would buy not what oz dollars buy.

In the past 5 years here our weekly living costs have doubled! We do not have a mortage, but things have really gone up that much. Food, healthcare and transport are way dearer. Insurance on everyting is a bit of joke, rates skyrocketed, and dont even mention house prices. GST seemed to push stuff up by more than 10% too. Teenage children would have been some factor in this but not all of it.

pommie bastard

Try paying for your new life with the sand on the beaches , I have rusty look right now its pissing down as it has done all week , dream on.

Kiwipaul

Well I for one don't think it is underestimated, I KNOW I'm living far better down here in Brissy than I was in uk. I had a very good job in the uk and when I left 10 years ago, and if you take an exchange rate of 2.5 to the pound, I'm still not earning as much as I was 10 years ago when I left, if you take 3 to the pound it works about about what I earned before I left.

But my standard of living is higher, providing I don't take overseas holidays in Europe or US.

Here is a shortcut to Groceries prices This is for Sydney and Melbourne and prices are abit cheaper up here.

Also petrol was 63.9c/litre last Sunday, a steak and chips in the equivilent of a Bernie Steak House (The sizzler, they have a web site) with as much soup, salad, paste and sweet as you could eat was $21 excluding drinks.

I was paying 10 quid for the same sort of meal 10 years ago in the UK.

You can buy 1kg of either apples, bananas, or oranges at the supermarket for less than $2, one of which is generally on special offer. A kg of seedless grapes cost $3-4 at the moment.

I saw a lobster going for $15 at a Fish shop yesterday which would have been big enough for one person.

I agree some things have gone up a lot, my car and contents insurance increased by about 15% this year.

But overall I"m much better off.

pommie bastard

Took 9 years to get anywhere near my wage 9 years ago in the UK too.
Went out the OB last night the new guy has put up the price of a pint up to $7.00 .
Good meal out here count on over $100 for two , on a meal no better than a Pub meal back in the UK you pay 10 quid each for.
You should go back and find out seeing that you so out of touch?

Nice to know how better off you are we have gone backwards but who cares you live on Lobster we eat sausage as do most here , can of beans $1.20 is all we can afford on a good week to go with a $3.00 loaf , saving up for the eggs.