Flood tax: what you will pay

Flood tax: what you will pay

www.news.com.au

MIDDLE income earners will pay about $1 a week to a one-off levy on annual income to fund the flood recovery in Queensland and Victoria.

People on an income of $60,000 will pay an extra $50 a year in tax. Those on $100,000 per year will pay an extra $250, or nearly $5 per week.

For those on Australia's average income, it equates to $1.44.
Vowing that Australia would "pay as we go", Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the one-year, $1.8 billion levy would help the Government pay for the estimated $5.6 billion hit to the federal budget caused by the floods.

Read more: www.news....

(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting to read that a levy is being imposed whether its good or bad Im not sure however it is going to help with the clean up effort though I hope it isnt blundered away to private greedy cleaning corporations that will milk the situation for what its worth.

Take a look at the graph on the link that shows what the tax will cost for different income. its good to see that low income earners and flood affected people are not affected by it.

Any ideas?

www.news.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by q_ball


Firstly, historically taxes that are started for a particular reason tend to stay around well after the neccessary funds have been raised..

Secondly, this tax merely targets workers...
Last I heard Corporations also used the roads and other infrastructure...
Why are they not being taxed to replace it????

Seems like, as usual it's the common man footing the bill...

This woman makes me sick.

She gives $500 MILLION to Indonesia to build Muslims schools - Money that should be spent on our own citizens in times like this, but targets the taxpayer here to fund this.

it must be a real kick in the sack to everyone who willingly donated as much as they could to help.

Nah, lets just buld more islamic schools in other countries, she'll be right...

www.theage.com.au...

Originally posted by badw0lf
This woman makes me sick.

She gives $500 MILLION to Indonesia to build Muslims schools - Money that should be spent on our own citizens in times like this, but targets the taxpayer here to fund this.

it must be a real kick in the sack to everyone who willingly donated as much as they could to help.

Nah, lets just buld more islamic schools in other countries, she'll be right...

www.theage.com.au...

It's been going on before she came into power..
NTW, this hasn't been passed yet and I hope it doesn't get through..

i just want to say this is complete crap, why should i haveto pay for this? honestly
i am all for helping the people etc etc but why cant the government pay for everything
our state government wasted 1 billion dollars on a public transport system to take over one that already worked and then the new one doesnt even work
enough is a#ing nuff.

i am sick to death of this crap
someone has to pay and its always us
screw them seriously we need to look at doing something about these people
take them out linch them watever. enough. IS ENOUGH

and then bp is going to drill down here, wtf
why do we never get asked about these major things?

we have the greatest largest reef system in the world the great barier reef and they are going to risk it by drilling anywhere near it?

how much do we get tourism wise with the reef opposed to what the country is going to get out of this drilling?
why doesnt anyone ask the question?

the floods ... they ask questions liek how do you think this is going to affect people mentally fiancially and questions along those lines... HOW THE # DO U THINK ITS GOING TO AFFECT PEOPLE, ITS THE BIGGEST FLOOD IN THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY!!!!!

how about this question.... so the governent spends money on wars and #ty public transport schemes when are th people of the country going to get paid out by their own government that they put in power
when is the government going to hold these insurance companies to their word and pay the people out what they deserve... "oh technically it wasnt a flood" ARE YOU #ING SERIOUS?

all these carreer politicians that play dumb, its not an excuse i want their blood just as much as the ones that know whats really going on.

they rort the system with their transport, their retirement funds, their percs and we still turn our heads to it.

ENOUGH .
SOMEONE HELP ME GET RID OF THEM.

AND NO I WILL NOT #ING CARM DOWN.

reply to post by q_ball


So long as the money is very carefully spent I don't mind

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by q_ball

 

So long as the money is very carefully spent I don't mind

Very carefully spent and government doesn't compute!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, THE FREAKING INSURANCES CORPORATIONS SHOULD PAY.... this is what they are there for!

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by q_ball

 

So long as the money is very carefully spent I don't mind

My God, you are either very young or very naive...
When has tax payers money been well spent???

Corporations need to be held to account here. Bob Brown (love him or hate him) was correct when he said that the mining companies should be footing a sizable portion of the bill given that all the burning of coal may have contributed to this disaster. Add to that that the QLD public helped those greedy a-holes dodge the Super Tax. What are these pricks giving back in return. I'll tell you. Sweet FA!

IRM

The Australian goverment can't even pay for the australian floods.Can't the goverment just pay the money required just to clean up and instead of introducing a tax but, no they indroduce a tax.It seems like the goverment can't even afford to pay for the floods without the tax.Now that is disappointing If the tax passes some money from people's pockets will disappear.Really horrid.

So when does this tax stop? Or is it permanent? I mean how long is it going to to take to recover the money? My guess it is something we will be paying forever...

Originally posted by Nonchalant
So when does this tax stop? Or is it permanent? I mean how long is it going to to take to recover the money?

Gillard wants a levy for the 2011/12 financial years only... Personally I doubt it would play out that way.

Originally posted by Nonchalant
My guess it is something we will be paying forever...

That's what Bob Katter is pushing for. An ongoing levy to cover disaster relief.

Independent MP Bob Katter has a non-negotiable position. He says a natural disaster fund has to be established or the Government will not get his vote.

"I want to know there is a fund there that will be there when the smallest town is in desperate trouble," he said.

Mr Katter wants a smaller, permanent levy with all the proceeds to go to a national fund. He says farmers also need government grants for replanting crops.

He argues victims of the 2009 floods in northern Queensland got nothing.

"If I was to vote for it as it is, that would be a gross injustice to the people of north Queensland who suffered so terribly," he said.

Source

Why should I have to pay a permanent levy for future flood victims if they choose to build houses in the middle of high risk flood plains? How about not building towns where floods are inevitable! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

IRM

Originally posted by Vitchilo

Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by q_ball

 

So long as the money is very carefully spent I don't mind

Very carefully spent and government doesn't compute!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, THE FREAKING INSURANCES CORPORATIONS SHOULD PAY.... this is what they are there for!

edit on 27-1-2011 by Vitchilo because: (no reason given)

So true. Though they are reporting on the radio over in WA that a lot of the insurance companies won't pay. Apparently the deal is that if the damage happened from storms above then you are fine, but if damage was caused by water rising out of rivers etc then they won't cover them.

Complete BS. Yet they just say "You should have read the fine print". Legally they are right, but the law is an ass. Fine print is only there to mislead people for exactly this reason - so the insurance company can make out like bandits.

And as others have said, once taxes get put in place they don't take them away *cough* GST *cough*

Be careful about these so called temporary taxes. Although I live in France, I work in Germany and therefore pay German taxes. After the wall came down, Germany introduced a temporary tax (for 2 years) to help with the cost of reunifying east and west. Guess what, after 20 odd years, I still have to pay this tax. It is about €70 per month.

reply to post by InfaRedMan

Why should I have to pay a permanent levy for future flood victims if they choose to build houses in the middle of high risk flood plains? How about not building towns where floods are inevitable! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

You can't really blame the people for building there..
Most wouldn't be aware it was a flood plain..

But what about the Government Councils??
Why did they "allow" people to build there and why did they build the roads and other infrastructure on known flood plains.??
If anyone is to blame it's the Government for allowing them to build......

Just caught this poll on Ninemsn..An Aussie site..

I think the people are speaking out against this tax on them..

Vote: Will the government flood levy stop you from donating? yes.30924 no.8359

That's the vote so far..

reply to post by backinblack


No I'm not naive. Many QLDers have no insurance or are not covered in their insurance policies and need to get back on their feet as quickly as possible. Infrastructure is a complete shambles and more dams should be built.

Yes, you are correct in saying many of these homes should never had been built in low laying areas but is'nt most of Australia? WA is another state built on low laying areas.

This won't be the last great flood and unless something is done, it will happen again and it won't only be QLD if the Govt has anything to do with it. There's information that has already gone under the radar and Australians have'nt paid attention to the technology the Govt's purchase mid last year. I'm still bewilded by this showing up on our weather imagery that no one seems to question:

www.pakalertpress.com...


To my knowledge this is a one off levy and even if I had to pay an extra $50.00 in tax at the end of each financial year, it beats paying an extra 1 or 2% increase however that will come soon enough after this:

www.telegraph.co.uk... 9a311f2621d%2C0

Re the levy: it's damned if you, damned if you don't.

Insurance companies don't have endless amounts of money; insurance policies are going to dramatically increase over the coming months and it will become unaffordable for alot of people. Then what happens next time they are flooded or burnt out by large bush fires? There's not even enough affordable homes to buy let alone rent in more suitable areas, so where do they go? Without a roof over their heads, how do they function? How do their families especially with young children function day to day?

Don't go down the path of pure selfishness. There's only so much our Govt can do, there's only so much money in the coffers. A $50.00 Levy a year is no great burden; just means you'll have to give up that takeaway coffee and bottle of coke for a week or two.

lets not forget the people effected by the black Saturday bush.
there was enough money donated by the Australian public to give every household effected over $1mill.

After 2 years some people are still homeless.

not 1/2 of the money raised through donations or tax will actually end up helping the community
someone with the right connections will end up with a 5 year job at 400k a year, payed for buy the donations. to delegate the work out.
and then cop hefty kick backs for giving it to "the right" people.

reply to post by backinblack


I hear you mate. What's done is done and in that sense we can play the blame game all day. There are many players. What the later part of my post refers to is the future and a reflection upon lessons learned. We shouldn't be building there again and expect tax payers to cough up when each individual is more than aware of the risks. If you take that risk it should be your risk alone.

I'll pay the levy this time, but I won't again if people rebuild there. That's why I'm essentially against what Katter proposes because that's exactly how it will play out.

IRM