🇦🇺Luke Mikic- The 9-5 Escape Artist🇵🇪@LukeMikic21
How I used to get taxed to death in Australia, before I left forever.🇦🇺
💰Me: Earn $500,000.
👮Gov: We'll take 48.5% of that, $242,500 thanks.
🏡Me: Buy my family a $1M home.
👮Government: Open your wallet, we want:
🥊$40,000 stamp duty on day 1.
🥊1% land tax, or $10,000 every year.
🥊10% GST for new homes, another $100,000
🥊Sell for $2M? 48% cap gain, You owe us $480,000.
🚗Me: Buy a nice $90,000 family car.
👮Gov: "33% Luxury car tax," another $29,000 thanks
🥩Me: Take my family to dinner.
👮Gov: Don't forget your 10% GST on ALL purchases.
🚴♂️Me: Buy a $1,000 bike online
👮Gov: 5% import taxes, ON TOP of the 10% GST.
👴Me: Dodge bullets for 50 years to retire with $2M.
👮Gov: We have a few ways to prevent that...
1 - 15% contribution tax.
Every year you want to put $25,000 into your retirement account, we take $4,000 immediately.
2 - Owh, your assets in your retirement account pay you a dividend... that'll be another 15% tax thanks.
You find 10% dividend growth, well, another $30,000 per year is due because that's "income," technically...
3 - You're going to love our new plan.
Imagine your assets don't receive income from dividends, but they simply rise in value, you don't owe any taxes right?
I mean, you didn't sell anything?
Well, that's not modern or progressive enough, we want 30% of the "unrealized paper gains," you're generating.
So, if you get a 20% return this year, you owe us $120,000, even if you don't sell a thing! Kinda neat right?
👶Me: Fine, tax me to death, but please let my kids have some crumbs.
👮Gov: AHHHHHH, we claim to not have "inheritance taxes," BUT your kids still pay taxes when they sell those assets.
✈️Me: Inflations 10%, these taxes are nuts, I'm leaving.
👮Gov: Slow down a moment, you owe us another 47% tax on all of the assets you're taking with you, even if you don't sell them.
🇦🇺I left Australia in 2022 on one of the first flights out of the country after the borders reopened.
It was the toughest decision of my life.
But, it was by far the best decision of my life.
🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇪🇺🇦🇺Western countries are all on the same path, and we saw how this ended in Russia, China, Venezuela and Cuba in the last 100 years. 🇷🇺🇨🇳🇨🇺🇻🇪
If you're on the fence about leaving, and doubting whether things could really get "that much worse."
These were 2 of the books that helped me make the decision:
Atlas Shrugged
The Sovereign Individual.