Mini-Tax-Attack

I think I just gave myself a mini-heart attack. You know how I roll.

I was looking at what I would do for taxes with this job. I'm getting paid cash-in-hand and since I'm trying to move to this country permanently, I'd rather not go the tax evasion route. This amount of money each week wouldn't exactly be easy to hide once it's in a bank, and I don't trust mattresses. They eat things. Like socks. And teddy bears.

Cal had the excellent idea to turn one of my bank accounts into my "tax account." The financial year ends on June 30 so I won't have to worry about it for almost a year, but I will need to pay taxes at the end of next year on all of this income that hasn't been taxed. (At least, I hope it turns out to be "all of this income!") Therefore, we decided to take out what would be taxed and put it into this other account to sit and wait to be paid to the government next July. That way when next July rolls around, we won't be hit with a bill that makes us want to cry in a corner and wish we hadn't bought those candy bars, or video games, or contributed to our cat's nip problem.

So I toddled over to the Australian Taxation Office's website and looked around to see what I could see, and found my mouth hanging open (with drool slowly pooling on my peacoat-sweatshirt-thing), eyes bugging like a seven tentacled octopus when he realized his eighth tentacle had wandered off again. For foreign residents, ANY income accumulated under $80,000 each year was taxed 32.5 cents to the dollar.

32.5%?? I did some quick calculator-math and found a third of my paycheck would be taken away (I mean, obviously--32.5%!), leaving me feeling as though that question about "should I start paying off my loans early" kind of null and void.

HOWEVER, I then read the fine print, which I should really do to begin with. It'd save me a lot of heart attack moments like this one. Just in life. I think I'll make that my slogan: read the fine print before you have a freak out. (Or maybe get an Emily One to follow me around telling me to calm myself. Emily One, do you sell mini-yous to dictate your wisdom?)

Turns out, I'm NOT a foreign resident for tax purposes if:

*I've been in Australia for 6 months continuously, and for most of the time I've been in the same job and living in the same place.
*Moved to Australia and live here permanently.

The first of which ought to be true by the time next year rolls around, and the second of which will PROBABLY be true by the time next year rolls around. At least, I'm planning on applying for permanent residency some time in November as Cal has another full year of university to go through after this semester, and my current visa is only through next June, and I am NOT doing that long distance thing again! Not to say I'm ruling out living in the States again, but seriously.

Anyway, that puts me in a bracket that I can manage without looking like a squished tree frog. Nothing taxed up until $18,000, and only 19 cents to the dollar after that. (Well, until $37,000, but I don't think I'll be making that much.) I'm planning on putting something like $100 in that tax account each week, which still leaves me with plenty for savings/loan payments, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep a lot of what's in that account at the end of the financial year, too.

Wow. Big girl problems, huh? The thing is, even with the mini-heart attack, I kind of like dealing with them. (She says as she creates MORE SPREADSHEETS.) Okay. So maybe it's just that I love spreadsheets. That's not so bad, is it?