KhunHeineken

It's in a fund, not a savings account or term deposit.

GST/VAT is a broad base consumption tax. It doesn't discriminate. At the last election Australians had the chance to vote for the winding back of negative gearing, which sees the tax payer help the wealthy own house after house after house, but it turns out that mum and dad's also have an investment property, so no one voted for it. Look at the state of the property market today. I ask earlier in the thread, "Where is the money going to come from to start to pay back the 1 trillion dollars debt?" I can only imagine there will be higher taxes, and some new taxes, which means I would not be surprised if they broaden the definition of non resident for taxation purposes as it's easy to do and prove. 183 days out of Australia, you are a non resident, here's your bill, or here's your pension, minus 30%. I can see a "Covid Levy" being introduced, similar to the Queensland Flood Levy. Australia is broke, and they have to find the money from somewhere.

I posted Australia has a generous welfare system. Another member has posted it's not so generous, but perhaps it's generous in the sense of how many people can qualify for it, or part of it. For a country with an aging population, and a political stance against immigration, where are the workers going to come from to fund the welfare system, let alone, start to pay back the 1 trillion dollars debt?

One thing is for sure, there's some big financial pain coming for a lot of Australians over the next 12 months. Inflation and the higher cost of living, interest rate rises, negative equity in property to name a few. There will be a big spike in defaults, repossessions and foreclosures. If only every Australian could own a mine. ????

Not sure about NZ, but if Australia continues on this path, it's heading towards becoming a Banana Republic.

I know a few guys in business that got this hand out, and their business didn't even close down for covid. A couple of them spent the money on luxury items for personal use, while most Australians were struggling to pay rent / mortgage.

It's probably the case Centerlink, the ABS, and the politicians, all have there own stats policies, so no one really knows where the truth lies. I'd like to know an accurate figure of just how many Australians work 38 hours a week, permanent full time. I suspect it's quite a low number of the total population.

A bit old, but I doubt much has changed. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/big-firms-including-news-corp-exxon-and-chevron-paid-no-tax-in-2016-tax-office-says-20171208-h01kxq.html

Interesting. https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/how-many-people-work-one-hour-week How many people work one hour a week? Only a very small number of people usually work one hour a week - most of whom would not like to work any more hours. Chart 1 shows that in 2020, on average, there were just over 15,000 people who usually worked one hour a week each month. This was around 0.1% of all employed people, which has not changed over recent years. Almost three quarters of these people were 'fully employed' - that is, they did not want to work, or were not available for, any more hours. Just over a quarter of people working one hour a week (4,400 people) were underemployed, on average, each month. In general, around half of underemployed people do not look for more hours. In addition, on average during 2020: just over 90,000 people usually worked fewer than 4 hours a week - less than 1% of total employment; and almost 315,000 people usually worked fewer than 7 hours a week - less than 3% of total employment. Hundreds of thousands of people working less than 7 hours a week.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-23/jobs-why-one-hour-enough-work/100155676

Similar, but people get paid to rent out their spare bandwidth from their homes / offices. The IP address you get could be from a router in a residential house in the suburbs, not a a server in a data center. The chances of many people joining that same router, in that house, for streaming the same app, is slim, so the streaming company can't blacklist it. As more and more people offer their router as a node, for payment, geo blocking and blacklisting will become a thing of the past. Tor exit nodes are known, and I don't think you can select the exit node country, so no good for streaming.

Bumping this thread as I have had a couple of PM's about it.

I learnt many years ago that the wealthy do not pay tax, and those on welfare do not pay tax, so that just leaves the middle class, and I think the middle class has been squeezed about as much as they can be. As for big companies paying tax, they will force the government to negotiate a deal, or they will move offshore. With only 25 million people, Australia doesn't have a big customer base for a big multi national company to care about too much anyway. There's only so many holes in the ground you can dig, and we don't manufacture anything anymore, so where's the money going to come from?

This is from your link: Your situation Your maximum fortnightly payment from 20 March 2022 Single, no children $642.70 The minimum wage you quoted is $772 a week. I take that to be gross, not net. I admit I do not know all the perk of Centerlink, but I would think rent assistance, free public transport / free car registration, subsidized electricity (very handy with high electricity prices) free medical and so on and so on, evens it up a fair bit, particularly rent assistance, and particularly after tax is taken away from the $772 per week for the worker. Also, nothing stopping them doing a few hours here and there for cash in hand, and they are better off than workers. As I said in another post, once you work 1 hour a week, you are deemed employed. Do you think that formula give accurate unemployment figures?

I think you mean better than world average, which I would agree with, but not better than world class, as a developed nation. For example, Australia ranks 56 in the world for internet speed. Unemployment is low because as soon as you work 1 hour you are deemed to be employed. Put that statistic along with the "casualisation of the workforce" and of course unemployment figures look ok, but they are not a true indication of what's happening on the ground. There has not been any significant wage growth for years. So, without any wage growth, where's all the extra income tax going to come from to pay back the 1 trillion dollars debt?

I have to disagree. You must be not well traveled, and our out of touch. Germany and Japan were flattened 80 years ago, now both are world leaders in many sectors, with great infrastructure. Australia hasn't even got a high speed train, and have only recently made the commitment that Badgerys Creek will be Sydney's second airport. The NBN internet is a national embarrassment. Huge hospital waiting lists, and school kids in non air conditioned portable class rooms. There's nothing like the autobahn in Australia. Years ago we built great things like The Harbor Bridge. Today, we don't even build a car in Australia. I am patriotic, it's just Australia is being mismanaged, with no end in sight.

"The dole" used to be a "hand up" not a "hand out." Welfare is now a lifestyle choice for many, and is seen as a viable option. When unemployment benefits are close to minimum wage, where's the incentive for people to work 38 hours a week? There's something wrong when Australians were given $750 a week to stay home during covid, yet Fijians had to be flown in to pick fruit that was dying on the trees. The welfare system just has too many loop holes that are being abused by career welfare recipients. It's become generational now. Grandparents never worked a day in their life, parents never worked a day in their life, and the grandchildren are following in the same footsteps. Add to this the financial incentive given to the wrong people to have more and more children, and you have a welfare bill that's just going to get bigger and bigger until it eventually can not be paid. The direction Australia is heading in is unsustainable. It's got to the point where there are more voters on welfare and there are voters who work, so those on welfare are catered for, making the bill even bigger after each election. If a company ran the same way it, would be broke in no time. How many G20 countries have a population of only 25 million, and out of that 25 million, only have a workforce of around 12 million? I could understand if Australia was 1 trillion in debt but with world class roads, rail, air, medical, education, internet and so on, but these are lacking. Successive governments over the last 20 years have just continued down the same path, unwilling to make unpopular policies for the benefit of the country, which has lead us to where we are today, in a huge debt trap.

You make some interesting points. I had a laugh at the politicians being found out as irrelevant comment. My point on that is, for world markets, government instability does play a role in investment, or lack of it. A hung parliament creates uncertainty for investors. I think China will move on Taiwan in the future also, but whether it's the points I made, or an invasion of Taiwan that sends the AUD on a downward spiral, either way, it's done for, as you say. It's only a question of time now. China's belt and road initiative has seen many countries indebted to China now. Just as the US gathered a coalition of the willing, under the duress of declining trade and security with those who did not join the invasion of Iraq, China may call upon the countries indebted to it to support an invasion of Taiwan, and no doubt Thailand will be onboard. There may be sanctions placed on Thailand by many western countries, and then it's possible no visas will be issued, or renewed, to citizens from the countries who have placed sanctions on Thailand. The Thai government may then take the extra step to return Thailand to the Thai people, so to speak, with some anti foreigner rhetoric and promoting nationalism, and then anything is possible, such as reclaiming property owned by foreigners who no longer have a visa to live in the property.

Do you have to be inside Australia for those 6 months, or can you apply, head back to Thailand, and they send the card in 6 months? I have international insurance, but never let my Medicare expire. I keep it as a back up. Every time I am in Australia, I go to a bulk bill clinic for a check up, not because I really need check up, although it can't hurt, but to flag up on the Medicare system as active. For me, it's part of not burning my bridges.

It's fair to question my assumption. Statistically, most marry in their 20's to early 30's, although it was younger some decades ago. Say their marriage lasts 10 years, so getting married at an average of around 30 years of age, and divorced 10 years later at 40 years of age, still leaves around 25 years after divorce before hitting retirement age, to have paid off a property, but some may need to use some of their Superannuation to pay it off after they retire. There probably would be some child support involved, and I'm not suggesting it's easy for a divorced father to get into the property market, but most of my divorced friends eventually bought a property for themselves after divorce. You are correct, the property market has gone crazy, but once again, I am talking about guys that are set to retire, or will be retiring in the near future, If you take into account the age of these guys, which is 60 and over, they were probably divorced more than 20 years ago, and have been able to make a decent financial recovery as property was still affordable around the time of their divorce. For a younger person, divorcing at a point in time when the property market boomed, they may not have been able to do so, but those guys are around 50's and over, so around 17 years away from retirement age, and not the guys I am talking about. This is what I am basing my assumptions on.

The wealthy don't pay tax, nor do those on welfare, and they can't make big business pay, or they just pack up and head offshore. That just leaves the middle class, and I think they have been squeezed to the point there is nothing else that can be taxed from them.

I wonder how much of it can be attributed to generous welfare systems that get taken advantage of.

Just goes to show how out of touch you are. Given most expat retirees arrive in Thailand as single, I have quoted the single assets test. This is from your own link. The example I gave was of the average Australian wage, NO INTEREST, just the actual deposited amount, for 50 years. That $1 of compulsory Superannuation that was deposited from a person's first day at work, when they were 18 years of age, earns interest for 50 years, which I did not include. Granted, they may not start on the average national wage at 18, but there's every chance that by the end of their career they will be earning more than the average national wage, so let's pick the average national of $62,500 to determine their annual Superannuation contributions. Why don't you throw $6,250 per annum (annual superannuation contribution) into a compounding calculator and see what figure you come up with after 50 years, and at a modest 5% return. Here's a compounding calculator link. https://moneysmart.gov.au/budgeting/compound-interest-calculator $6,250 per annum, for 50 years, compounded at 5% equals $1,380,096 at retirement age. It must be remembered, I was talking about future retirees NOT qualifying for a pension, and these figures pretty much show that. It's fair to say, people approaching retirement in the near future, earned much less than what is the average national wage in 2022, and Superannuation wasn't introduced until 1992. It's complicated to add into the mix cheaper housing in the 80's and 90's and cheaper cost of living, vehicles etc, but these tend to favor the wealth of the retiree. So let's be very conservative with some figures. Given all variables, and using a lot of averaging, let's say only $3,750 of Superannuation was deposited, per annum, over 50 years. This small amount makes up for the 12 years Superannuation didn't exist for someone who started working in 1980, but we must take into account Superannuation existed for more working years than not for them. The example is someone starts work in 1980 at the age of 18, with a view to retiring in 2030, age 68, with a 50 year career. Do you think $3,750 is a fair figure for this example? Given the average national wage is now $62,500, which is $6,250 deposited annually into a Superannuation account. If you don't think this is a fair figure, please state what you think is a fair figure. I admit there can be no compounding for the 12 years Superannuation didn't exist, but this is reflected in the lower $3,750 per annum figure, over the total 50 years. $3,7500 per annum, over 50 years, at a modest 5% interest equals $828,058 at retirement age. Both examples see neither a person who started work in 1980, or a person who started work anytime there after, qualify for ANY pension, and that is EXACTLY what Superannuation was designed for, and that is EXACTLY why the government has made the thresholds it has, because it excludes a majority, and makes them use their own money in their retirement. How this relates to the thread topic is, as I said, in the future, most Australians will not receive a pension, and the above figures show that. Picture all these Aussie expats with near, or over, a $1,000,000 Superannuation asset that is generating them an income, suddenly being deemed "non-residents for taxation purposes." This doesn't even take into account a house they may rent out, or business interests, or shares etc. Remember, they are NOT on a government pension, but earning in Australia, but living overseas, which is something the tax office doesn't like. If someone is retiring this year, 2022, in general, they started work in 1972, so had 30 years of working under compulsory superannuation. They may still qualify for some pension. Here is a link to the assets that will be assessed. It's very comprehensive. https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/asset-types?context=22526 Someone mentioned a messy divorce which could see guys lose assets, and I agree, this is a factor, but that could be offset by receiving an inheritance, for example, as most would have lost their parents as approaching retirement age. The old Aussie pensioners sitting in Thailand today MAY slip through the cracks of the proposed changes, but as I have said in other posts, that old Aussie pensioner in Thailand will be few and far between in the future, because the future is just about all Aussie future retirees will not be eligible to receive a pension, and through Superannuation, will have an income producing asset in Australia which is ripe for non-resident for taxation purposes picking by the tax department. I'll say it one more time. It's not so much about the pensioners now, it's the retirees with assets, and those who will retire in the near future with Superannuation. Below are the government thresholds, from your link. Full Pension If you get a full pension When your assets are more than the limit for your situation, your pension will reduce. If you’re a member of a couple, the limit is for both you and your partner’s assets combined, not each of you. Your situation Homeowner Non-homeowner Single $270,500 $487,000 Part Pension From 1 July 2021, part pensions cancel when your assets are over the cut off point for your situation. If you’re a member of a couple, the limit is for both you and your partner’s assets combined, not each of you. Your situation Homeowner Non-homeowner Single $599,750 $816,250 Transitional rate of pension. From 1 July 2021, transitional rate pensions cancel when your assets are over your cut off point. If you’re a member of a couple, the limit is for both you and your partner’s assets combined, not each of you. Your situation Homeowner Non-homeowner Single $545,250 $761,750

$78 billion dollar deficit. Australia to hit $1 trillion debt in 2023. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/debt-grows-deficits-continue-despite-300b-boost-to-economy-20220323-p5a78e.html Australia may end up begging China to add it to their Belt and Road initiative.

Do you have private health insurance in Thailand? I would feel quite vulnerable without private health insurance, and Medicare as a back up. I thought there was a qualifying period when returning to Australia for Medicare.