Taxing us into poverty
OH DEAR Mr Morrison,
Your government has been collecting taxes off my pension savings for almost six years. The rate, called deeming, has been placed at up to 4 per cent when the best interest I can get for my savings has been 2 per cent and even less this very day.
What upsets me is that people who have larger savings than I ever had but have shares and superannuation get a cash donation called a franking credit. Now I don’t totally understand franking credits but I have to say I don’t trust your or your Treasurer’s explanation about what a franking credit is but come on, a refund despite not having paid any taxes. The term there’s something rotten in Denmark comes to mind. Put simply, that ain’t fair mate.
My husband and I have never been out of work, paid our taxes on time, never trusted the share market yet saved enough to live for 10 years before in the end getting an age pension. We retired early because our stress levels were through the roof. My husband worked in a factory and I was a teacher’s assistant for 20 years.
We’ve done everything that is good for our community right down to downsizing our property because our family house was mostly under-utilised and too hard to keep clean. So why do you have to tax us into poverty when we’ve done the best job of staying independent for as long as we have?
Now to the latest blow. You want to use our modest home as part of our retirement plan. This to me is surely the most insulting kite your government has ever flown. Surely in this time of exorbitant house prices the one thing we can do is pass our home on to a family member who is struggling to stay afloat in a time when survival is tougher than it’s ever been.
Oh, and one more thing, stop telling me that times aren’t as tough as they seem. Mate times are really tough out here in the regions. Political speak drives me insane when I look at our community and see empty shopfronts, dilapidated buildings, people looking unhappier than ever, crimes being committed by unemployed and uneducated youth, franchise businesses going from promising to rip-off and taking energetic young people into bankruptcy without so much as an honest conscience assessment by the franchisor, who clearly only cares about the bottom line.
We live in a time when governments all over the world are trying to work within a system’s framework that has become redundant. It came out of the feudal era did it not? Think about it, the system is failing and we little people are the ones who are eating less meat, looking for cheaper everything yet spending more on basics like electricity, housing, rent and transport. We do all this so someone else can get richer.
It seems to me that the ruling wealthy still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that today’s young people are better educated, capable of running a business or a country even though they constantly see opportunity selfishly taken from them by big wealthy corporations whose hunger for profit is really bad for just about everyone. Handing out rosecoloured glasses can’t change how the world really is and we little people aren’t stupid or blind enough to be told differently.
Do you get the fact that some of us cut back on food to be able to buy petrol to visit a friend or relative? I don’t think so. I have friends who had their pets put down because they couldn’t afford vet bills. That’s a fact mate! Mmmm, maybe a pair of those rose-coloured glasses?
Oh well! I must get back to my life that’s not as bad as it seems until the lights are turned off by our power server or I have to fight for a four-minute shower while still being able to water my pride and joy garden. Please don’t get me started on where our planet and the weather isn’t going, the Murray River buyback scheme…
See you at Centrelink one day? JEAN WADDELL Townsville