Tax Makes Me Angry
I received my first payment last week for writing my column. The net figure differed somewhat from the amount on the invoice. This always makes me slightly angry.
So on further analysis of my non-New Zealand bank account I could see no line item for recipient bank charges. At this point I was blaming BNZ for clear theft due to their bank charges in the TT.
The kind staff at the Accounts Department then delivered the bad and dirty news. They had deducted withholding tax from my invoice. Bastards. And I don’t mean the Accounts Department who I am sure are very nice people. Bastards. I mean the Government.
After an hiatus of time long enough for me to forget I pay any tax to those Socialist production stealing dropkicks in the Labour Government, I now pay tax in New Zealand again despite not living in New Zealand or using resources in New Zealand. This makes me angry. For nothing makes an expatriate angrier than paying any tax to a country that we have left regardless of their draconian laws surrounding. Especially when our taxes go to pay for interest free student loans that we never have or had access to. Bastards.
So much so that I can now represent anger again in my writing so from here on until I stop having to pay tax to those Socialist production stealing dropkicks in the Labour Government, Cactus Kate is once again qualified enough to write about those Socialist production stealing dropkicks in the Labour Government and their supporters. I no longer have to feel hypocrisy when I denounce dirty New Zealand Socialism for once again, I am paying for it.
Let us begin today, the slightly more political but still very much tabloid and magazine format, Asian Invasion.
posted by Cactus Kate at 9:47 PM
12 Comments:
I expected more, to be earning so little that a bank fee could be mistaken for withholding tax is pretty sad my dear, major dissapointment.
Kate, I know how you feel - I get NRWT'd on money I still have there. The best investments are those that have the approved issuer status, because then there is only a 2% levy rather than 15% NRWT. The interest rates are so high, however, that even with NRWT, its still better to invest there than in the local market.
Anonymous
Your simplicity amuses me so much I assume you are unemployed.
Obviously you have never completed overseas TT or wire instructions where the fees (sender and recipient if you cop them both) can range into a couple of hundred NZ$.
And equally you fail to appreciate the 40-50c per word standardised rate for freelance writing in NZ regardless of your experience, brilliance or qualification, so at least I guess you don’t read Public Address where this was covered recently.
You fail more though to appreciate that this gig barely pays for a round of drinks at happy hour price over ‘ear.
Which is why this ain’t never be me daytime gig.....
Kate,
The tentacles of the beast reach much further and have much broader powers than you may think. The thieving socialist pricks have come up with this ambiguous piece of shit regarding one's NRT status that really strikes fear into any ex-pat's heart who may have property or be a beneficiary of a trust, etc.
For tax purposes you are a non-resident if you:
are away from New Zealand for more than 325 days in any 12-month period, AND
do not have an enduring relationship with New Zealand.
The test for an enduring relationship is suitably vague to enable to The IRD to classify one as a NZ tax resident if they look at your NZ assets and decide they want some (a lot)of your worldwide income for their pinko pig trough.
Owning a house in NZ and or displaying any intention to return to NZ after a time would put you in this category.
I'm selling my house there and if and when I ever leave Japan I will be heading straight for Australia.
Cactus Kate, tax is no biggie when you are actually getting paid a decent rate. Why on earth blame the government when newspapers here pay such a weenie amount. Shouldn't you be directing your anger at those dirty rotten publishing barons who are ripping off a newbie to the freelancing world? Seasoned freelancers realise you can't live on bylines alone, but cheapo publishers play on the vanity of those who yearn for one.
Anonymous
What utter dribble from your brief journey to Planet Socialism are you spouting now? “Tax is no biggie when you are actually getting paid a decent rate”. Balder dash. Of course tax is an issue, especially if they are paying 39 cents in the dollar + extras.
Why would I get angry at the “dirty rotten publishing barons”? If I don’t like their standardised rates then I simply would not do the bloody job now would I? That is my personal choice.
What is not my personal choice is the ridiculous notion I have to pay income tax on anything when I no longer live in the country I am paying the tax to. This is my point here. I have left the country and still the rotten bastards in Wellington are capable of withholding income from me for services I perform from afar. They say if you don’t like paying tax in NZ then leave. Well I have and I am still paying.
Experienced freelancers are complaining they are not paid enough as well and I refer you to Public Address where Russell and Deborah Hill Cone have discussed this ad nauseum, even the ones over at The Herald. And they all complain they are on an almost standardised rate scale from their publisher regardless of skills, experience, type of writing etc. So let’s not pretend more than a few are earning a decent rate because they are not.
Unfortunately it is very difficult for them to prove “market value” in the small market that is NZ. Very few freelancers in NZ seems to be able to connect with their audience well enough to be able to claim people are buying a newspaper solely for their work, thus “dirty rotten publishing barons” treat them as though they are filling space between the advertisements and pay them accordingly. The mentality of NZers demands a quick easy thrill in their day from their media. I am yet to be convinced there is a profitable market in NZ for lengthy well researched and balanced pieces of BBC styled “journalistic art”. Otherwise don’t you think that publishers would be producing them for the twelve people left in NZ who have all day to read and think about that sort of esoteric, intricate food for the mind and the bowel.
It’s kind of nasty I guess but it is why most freelancers in NZ need at least a second job or business enterprise to support themselves.
Cactus
"Otherwise don’t you think that publishers would be producing them for the twelve people left in NZ who have all day to read and think about that sort of esoteric, intricate food for the mind and the bowel."
Those 12 tend to read blogs and online news rather than buy MSM print anyway...
The trouble with freelance rates is that we have blow ins like you agreeing to write for pitiful rates. Please, if you don't want to worry about New Zealand's tax, then don't write for New Zealand publications anymore. We can do without people willing to work at piece-work rates. Jeez, at the rate newspapers pay --$150 a column if you're lucky --it's almost vanity publishing.
Anonymous
The trouble you are having is that you are obviously too stupid to comprehend what I am explaining to you.
I AM paid the same rate to do what you do if the general rates previously quoted on Public Address by Brown and his mates are correct. I don't know where your $150 comes in because I sure ain't paid that.
This is precisely what is pissing you off the most though - I am not undercutting them at all.
And I am not a member of a union. And I am right wing as hell.
So go back to bagging the publishers.
THAT'S a great move, should up the going rate considerably.
But you are boring, tedious writer. That's the real crime.
Yeah.....right.
Your comments and comprehension are incoherent enough for a five year old to drive a truck through them, so link us to more of your entertaining brilliance then to compare.
Oh that's right....you don't have a column or a blog.
Don't like it then stop reading it. Rather like yourself it is very.....simple.
Anonymous #2 calling Anonymous #1
"boring, tedious writer".
You have proved more than your stupidity with this comment. You are also not very widely read, in MSM or through blogs.
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