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Trump ripped up Obama's nuclear treaty with Iran, then started a pointless war that cost thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, half of the US missiles and tens of aircraft, disrupted shipping to most of the world and caused fuel crises in many countries. Now he's desperate to end the war before the midterms, so is doing a "deal" that leaves the Iranian regime better off than before the war. Tell me again how he's "righting the ship"?

Trump beat Kamala Harris by only 1.5% of the popular vote. The electoral college system is the reason he got in easily with 312 votes compared to Harris's 226. Only a few thousand votes in a couple of swing states could have seen Harris the winner. Their system is corrupt and skewed by vested political interests. The US was considered a flawed democracy before the 2024 election & sits at No 34 on the World democracy index well below the threshold to be considered a full democracy. Now it is almost an autocracy under Trump. The average American seems to accept this as OK but the real test will be the Mid term elections later this year.

Good ol' Jimmy Buffet, one of my favorite singers! - "Cheeseburger in Paradise".

All sides They all have people lobbying talking bribes with them. Do you really believe different

Unfortunately that is human nature for most people.

Very good.

I don't know how this compares withother hospitals, but when I went for my heart imaging today, I had to go through the doorway of the emergency dept at Knox Private to get to the lift. A notice on the door stated that the fee for using the ED was $470, paid on the day.

They would need to double or triple the size of the audit teams to be able to deal with the amount of "collectibles" of modest value, that regularly change hands. So much of it is done in cash transactions.

It must be a case of the squeaky wheel getting the oil. My energy retailer has been giving me a run around for a week or more regarding an estimated bill. They've gone the way of a lot of companies with team leaders, working groups and all sorts of titles and jargon. The end result is that to fit all this stuff into their operation, something had to go, and that something is common sense. Emails have been bouncing back and forth for a while now, thanking me for my patience and promising that the working group will look into it. I emailed them last night and told them that patience was running out and I would start looking at changing retailers if their billing department couldn't resolve the issue. This morning I received a revised bill of $0, so they've waived the bill by crediting my account with the bill amount.

I agree there octave. People selling small items are probably not going to come under scrutiny. More likely if you sell a large valuable coin or jewellery collection in one lot. A bit like centrelink with applications for pension or income support. Technically you are supposed to list the value of personal items and I'd say most people undervalue or don't list them at all. That's accepted and I've never heard of anyone getting an audit of their personal items.

The only CGT I have first-hand experience of was on the sale of my house on 44 acres. As has been discussed on this forum in the past, there is a rule that you are liable for CGT on everything over 5 acres (2 Hectares). Unlike CGT on collectables, you are legally allowed to do the valuation yourself (but you may need to show your workings out). The exempt 5 acres need not be one parcel of land, so you choose all the most valuable bits to exempt. In my case, the house and infrastructure (water tanks, septic tanks, etc. and a strip of river frontage. I then was able to deduct the cost of ownership (rates etc maitanance of fences and other things). I was able to aggressively (but legally - I think) whittle the CGT bill down to $1500. I did half expect a please explain letter; however, it never came, and 9 years later, it is too late for them, unless they detect out-and-out fraud. I did plenty of research, and I actually found in an obscure place a tax department internal document that listed the conditions that trigger an audit with regard to land sales, so I felt on safe ground. The thing is, compared to some people selling land, my case was pretty trivial. It does not really make sense for ATO to spend vast sums of money detecting the sale 1 watch or piece of jewellery in a private sale. This is not tax advice!

In my situation the majority of my aviation collection has come from overseas, so there has been a postage and freight component to the total cost. Also since the government scrapped the $1,000 exemption on paying GST on imported goods, there's a 10% GST component in the total cost, which is 10% of the cost of the item + postage + any customs fees. When working out the cost of the item for determining a capital gain or loss, does the tax department go by the cost of the item only or that plus all other costs incurred.

In practice, for the ordinary person, I suspect it will be difficult to enforce. A CGT already exists; it is just the method of calculation and valuation that has changed (as far as I can see). If Onetrack sells me some of his lovely junk, how would the ATO even know? Since I have been downsizing, I have sold many possessions, mostly they have lost value, but some musical instruments have gained in value and are probably subject to CGT. Pretty hard to detect, though.

Farq.. I agree with PM.. it will bring a lot of ordinary people into the net. $500 is not a lot these days and unless you can prove what you have bought is used on a frequent basis, it will be classed as a collectible and if you sell it as yiu don't use it anymore and you make a profit, you pay. But if you make a loss, you can only offset that loss against other gains on collectibles you sell within the tax year.. not even other CGT payable assets let alone your total assemble tax. This is what I call pernicious tax... And Google tells me thar the official rate of inflation isn't taken into account, but some formula applied by the ATO, which is usually lower than the inflation rate. This is what I call a pernicious tax or a money grab. There is a carve out for personal use, but you have to prove it and it cant be occasional; it has to be frequent.. In theory, that jewellery necklace bought for wearing on the wedding day and only dragged out for special occasions will he caught.. so yeah, it will affect a lot of ordinary people.

Yes, that's it thanks. And my experience is that the valuer has to be a recognised valuer by the tax department, and they charge a fortune. So, in the past you could just work from what you had paid but in June next year you may need a valuation that you can't afford. Or just cop it on the chin. And I don't know what a collectible is in general, what about that bloke who restores army tanks?

Nev, I havn't been in business for many years. This is just my retirement hobby. I get no tax deductions for anything!

Are you making a business of it or is it just a hobby? IF it's a business, all legitimate expenses relating to it are deductible. . Nev

Eggs get Laid. Nev

What came first..the chicken or the egg? Neither ..the Rooster did.

I have a yard full of "collectibles". Most others view my "collectibles" as "junk". I just have to convince the ATO when I make a killing selling one of my "collectibles", that it's not taxable! 😄

I don't think this is going to affect working class individuals much. @pmccarthy's example would be treated under existing rules anyway as gains prior to 1/7/27 are grandfathered. It's more for people who can afford high value appreciating assets - art, diamonds etc which they currently use to avoid tax. I'd argue that. I'm not badly off and we don't have anything besides the family home that will appreciate in value. Most of the people I know are in the same situation.

There were about 5 Women in the Last event. They Placed in and ran with all the Others. IF someone decides to rate how they rated between themselves THAT is not really doing anything special for them. They started based on established times like any other competitor in the event. Nev

Which side Looks after the Rich the most?. Nev

I believe the spelling is Eligible. ? I'd have More sympathy for the People of the USA if more of them cared a bit for "the Rest of the World" and not just their own profits. Unilaterally withdrawing from agreements IS pretty Poor form by anyone. Who can be trusted after doing that? What's YOUR word worth? .Nev

While the Govt tries to exact small amounts of tax on collectable items hoarded by working class individuals, they let global corporations and billionaires get away with paying bugger-all tax on multi-million dollar profits, because it's "too hard" to stop their innovative and devious loophole-finding tax arrangements.