August 15th, 2025Kyle’s Rant

I hear the word government bandied around a lot. I don’t know anyone from the government, I have never seen the government so how is it that every Thursday they take their first slice of my hard-earned money?
If I don’t pay this faceless organisation, they will charge me more money and eventually throw me into one of their gaols. And it is my responsibility to keep all my receipts and pay for someone at the end of the year to prepare a tax statement to present to them. And if I’m lucky I get a tiny tax refund.
So “they” clip 30 per cent of my income before I even have it in my claw, and then there is the 2 per cent Medicare levy. If I earn $1000 per week and I am not saying I do (bloody newspapers) before I get my money I have only $680 left. And you can broadly say I will lose another 10 per cent, when I buy anything with their Goods and Services Tax. Unless of course, I am buying feminine products (fair enough), but because I am a bloke and shave every day to look presentable, I must pay the GST on my foam and shavers, and they are not cheap.

So, I’m left with $612 in my hand, but unfortunately, I must pay for fuel for work, and it looks like the little piggies have their hand out for another 51 cents per litre. I use around 50 litres a week because I live in the country so that’s another $25.50 out of my take home leaving me with $586.50 and I haven’t made it home from work yet.
Now I want to go to the pub to drown my tax sorrows, and I am only talking about five pints a week, and without boring you with the calculation this attracts $7.88 tax leaving me with $578.62 to take home to the wife. But she will want me to come home with a bottle of wine, and the good news is wine is not an excisable beverage. But, don’t break out the bubbles yet, the greedy bastards found a way around that too and slapped it with a wine equalisation tax or WET. This is typically a percentage of the wholesale value, so an average $15 bottle and one sometimes won’t do, so let’s be (sort of) honest and say six bottles a week this attracts $26.10 of WET. So, I’m down to $562.62. This is what is left to pay for power, rates, food, loans, mortgage and maintenance – should you be lucky enough to own a house.
Now the list of indirect taxes takes a lot of research so excuse me if I turn to AI to track down all the ways that “they” have dreamed up to dip into your pocket.
State taxes include: Property taxes, stamp duty, residential properties: 1.4 percent on first $25,000, then escalating rates up to 6.5 per cent on amounts over $960,000. Land tax: Progressive rates from 0.2 percent to 2.55 per cent on total taxable land value above $300,000 threshold; council rates: around $4000; Payroll tax: 5.23 percent on wages above $900,000 threshold; Motor vehicle registration: $800 annually for standard passenger vehicles; and Insurance taxes: insurance duty: currently 10 per cent.
Other Victorian charges are: Fire Services Property Levy (FSPL): annual levy on most properties for fire services funding: Metropolitan Improvement Levy: 0.125 per cent of capital improved value on metropolitan properties; and Congestion Levy: on non-residential car parking spaces in Melbourne CBD and surrounds.
I am sure I have missed out on some, but my point is there is not much left after you finish your job and put your feet up for the weekend. In fact it makes one question what it is we are paying for, sure infrastructure is one thing, but there isn’t a lot of new infrastructure in our part of the world. And when I go down to Melbourne I still get stung to use the infrastructure with parking and tolls.
I am always happy to pay my bit to live in a civilised world, but these days my bit seems bigger, while the world is not all that civilised.
Tax rant over…