Lacessit

You state you are a self-funded retiree. AFAIK you don't state your nationality, or your location. Why are you so interested in an age pension you don't get? Is your lifestyle funded from an SMSF, and threatened by removal of the generous tax concessions? Misery loves company? Figures of 200,000 pensioners and $5.3 billion seem pretty exact to me. As does your prediction the proposed changes will take place without modifications such as thresholds or grandfathering.

You've posted a figure of 200,000 pensioners living abroad, in your calculations. $5.3 billion in pensions going overseas. Your figure of 200,000 assumes all of those pensioners get the full pension, many are on part pensions. As I am. It also assumes none of those pensioners ever return to Australia, as I have recently for a indeterminate period. Ignoring those deficiencies in logic, the real figure of pensioners living overseas is approximately 90,000. A 2016 figure, I doubt it has increased significantly since then. Quote: "According to the Federal Department of Social Services, there are estimated to be about 90,000 Australians who live overseas whilst still receiving their Age Pension entitlements." $5.3 billion X 90,000/ 200,000 X 0.32 = $760 million, a long way short of the billions you were claiming in a previous post. Even less counting the cost of administration, and the other variables I have mentioned. There are 12,000 Australians with super balances of more than $5 million. That's $60 billion of funds getting tax concessions way over what they need for a comfortable retirement. No wonder the Treasurer is salivating. I guess when you're in a hole, you won't be able to resist keeping on digging.

I would need a scanning electron microscope to read that closely.

Please educate me on the humor present in your Chicken Little chunterings.

Perhaps if you posted some facts and figures to support your vague assertions, I might stop regarding them as utter drivel. The savings from removing superannuation tax concessions are almost equivalent to the total cost of the OAP. Fact. Now post the estimated contribution of taxing the OAP of retirees living overseas. IMO it's not billions. The cost of administrating the removal of superannuation tax concessions is zero. Fact again. What will the cost of administrating a tax on the OAP be, when a good proportion of pensioners will be flitting in and out of Australia to <deleted> it?

Thank you. You are not affected by that change; however, you are dead against taxing pensions. How many other pensioners who are not expats would feel the same way?

You seem to be confused between low and high-hanging fruit. The low-hanging fruit are the wealthy, because their potential contribution to the budget bottom line is massive once the superannuation tax rorts have been removed. Nearly as much as the entire OAP cost. IMO those wealthy are not going to be getting sympathy anywhere outside the Liberal Party, which is looking increasingly irrelevant. As is the Murdoch media, which has been influencing Australian politics for decades. OTOH, pensioners are high hanging fruit. The return from taxing them is peanuts, and the political backlash from taxing the OAP, whether one is inside Australia or out, IMO would be considerable. Politicians of all stripes have learned not to mess with the pensioner vote. You may be right, one size fits all is beloved by most bureaucrats. Perhaps they will be more cautious after the Robodebt Royal Commission, which has exposed the war on the poor initiated by the Liberals. The next Liberal Government? I'll be dead by then.

What's the low hanging fruit? Taxing OAP retirees outside Australia for a return of a few million, or removing superannuation tax concessions which would almost pay for the entire age pension bill? There's already talk of making $5 million the limit for concessions, beyond that taxing super like any other source of income. When I had my own SMSF, I was actually getting refunds on zero tax from the ATO via franking credits, and I was small potatoes compared to some. I can remember a multi-millionaire boasting how his accountant had managed to get him a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. I guess people are not up in arms because there are many Australians on quite good incomes who are now battling to survive due to price inflation and interest rate hikes, and they are not too concerned if the wealthy have to start sharing some of the pain.

It's a reform which is long overdue. A single person ( non- homeowner ) with assets over $846,000 cannot get the age pension, or a part pension. Said person with those assets in superannuation gets exactly the same tax concessions as someone with $10 million or $100 million in their superannuation. If they are invested in shares paying fully -franked dividends, the super fund pays zero tax on the dividend income. This has been a rort since Reasonable Benefit Limits were abolished in 2007. I can hear the howls of outrage from an increasingly irrelevant political party and their beneficiaries already.

Welcome back, Rooster.

The Nissan CVT has the worst reputation for reliability out of all the CVT's on the market. IIRC, the recommended oil change on CVT's is 70,000 km, Changing at 35,000 km is probably a wise move.

If you can find one in good condition, a Nissan Sunny pickup is very durable. I've seen them in working order with 400,000 km on the odometer. Bahtsold or One2Car are the best options online, or try a Nissan dealership that has a used vehicle section. Don't buy any Nissan that has a CVT gearbox.

You are wrong too. The $10,000 limit applies not only to passengers and crew, but all cash sent by air, courier or by sea. You may be right on the electronic reporting, permit me to doubt AUSTRAC will get their knickers in a twist over one or two thousand AUD. After all, it took them years to catch up with Westpac.

AUSTRAC is notified of transfers above $10,000. Permit me to doubt they are going to waste their time tracking WISE transfers of a few thousand dollars. Or that the financial institution would be reporting them.

I am wondering what happens to those pensioners who filled out a non-lodgment advice years ago, and dropped out of the tax system because they had no tax to pay. How would the ATO get back in contact to say you now need to do a tax return, and pay 30% tax on your pension? AFAIK the ATO does not have the authority to take money from anyone's bank accounts. What does the ATO do if their communications are ignored? Many years ago, I knew a guy who worked as a surveyor. Moved around a lot due to his job. He told me he had not submitted a tax return for 20 years.

I don't know your circumstances. If you own anything that is market-linked, Centrelink re-assesses its value every six months. They may also be tracking your Thai bank accounts, which would be part of that process. Although IIRC you did say you do not report the Thai accounts as part of your asset base.

It depends on how assets are valued. In my case, Centrelink revalues shares and my Thai baht bank accounts every six months. For example, if the Thai baht appreciates against the AUD, my pension is adjusted lower.

A lot of what if's in your post, consistent with your endless negativity. Income from a superannuation fund is already taxed within the fund itself. Taxing it again at 30% would have every superannuant up in arms, double taxation is anathema whether one is inside or outside Australia. You don't seem to realise both major parties no longer have enough grunt to pass legislation on their own, they have to go cap in hand to the independents now. It would only take someone like Jacqui Lambie or Andrew Wilkie to point out Australia would be the only country in the world taxing the OAP on the basis of where it is being spent, and denounce its lack of fairness. You seem to delight in posting in the worst possible light. I'm reminded of Churchill's observation.

Taxing expats is one thing, taxing pensions is an entirely different kettle of fish. When pensioners are forced to head back to Australia or be taxed 30% or whatever, they will be angry. And as the last election demonstrated quite unequivocally, angry people elect TEAL independents because they have had enough of the major parties. Self-funded retirees are living off investments within their superannuation funds. Which are a sacred cow in Australian politics. Look what happened to Shorten when he proposed those changes to dividend imputation credits, a considerable component of superannuation income. Self-funded or OAP recipients, retirees are a significant electoral bloc. Whether they are inside or outside Australia.

Your figure of hundreds of thousands is quite exaggerated. According to Google, there are about 20,000 Australian retirees in Thailand, and some of those are self-funded. Thailand is probably the most frequently selected retirement destination for Australians overseas, for various reasons. Those numbers should not be confused with expat numbers, which is what you appear to be doing. Forcing elderly retirees to return would put more strain on an already broken Medicare system. We are much more likely to need medical care. In addition, the government would have to start forking out extra cash for supplements such as energy, phone, transport and rent assistance. When returning retirees are paying 50-60% of their pension income in rent alone, how can the government get extra benefit from people living on Mama noodles? Let's say the government decides to tax the pensions of people living overseas at 30%. Said pensioners simply don't put in a tax return. The ATO may be able to collect the tax in advance, which I see as another Robodebt time bomb. Inevitably, bureaucracies make mistakes. You see it as a win-win, I see it as a cost "saving" which would not be worth the effort of implementation.

I was not asking for the repeat to be supplied at the same time. The pharmacist did not give me the repeat back when filling the first prescription. I was recently reading an article about a pharmacist in Brisbane who had his assets frozen pending the refund of $1.9 million obtained by PBS fraud.

I will be trying a different pharmacy to see if the response is the same. If not, I will be reporting a potential scam.

The changes I see are in access ( walk-ins no longer accepted ) and organization. The office I normally go to had Centrelink and Medicare under the one roof. Now I have to travel an extra 8 km to get to a Medicare office. Wait times on the phone, of course. According to my pharmacist, the PBS is now only paid on the first prescription - repeats are charged at the regular price. Which means I have to make a doctor's appointment once a month to get subsidized medicine. Example: I take finasteride. PBS price $7.30, retail $28. If I go to a doctor who bulk bills, I am wasting his/her time, and taxpayer's money. In a private practice, the consultation will cost about $50 after the Medicare rebate, more waste. Doctors are abandoning bulk billing in droves. I don't know who dreams this kind of BS up, but IMO they belong on a dole queue.

How long ago did this miracle occur? Based on my recent experience, I have to take your claim of a response time of 15 seconds on the phone (132 300 ) with a truckload of salt.

The balance of any bank account in Thailand is part of a pensioner's asset base, which is required to be reported to Centrelink by law. I have three Thai bank accounts, and report the balances to Centrelink when I am in Australia.