Taxed to death.

[red750]

Allan Labor Government’s secret plan for death duties by stealth

 

Victorians are set to be taxed beyond the grave by the Allan Labor Government with a new form of death duties to be imposed under the guise of massive increases to probate fees.

 

In a move that replicates death duties (abolished in Victoria in 1981), grieving families will now have to surrender a portion of their loved one’s estate to the Allan Labor Government based on the value of the estate.

 

While probate fees were previously set at a flat rate and capped for estates valued at $5 million or more at a fee of $2,318.90, Victorian families will now have to pay a probate fee based on a sliding scale up to $15,407.40; an increase of 564.4 per cent.

 

Meanwhile....

 

The Federal Labor Government continues to crab-walk away from the Suburban Rail Loop after Minister for Infrastructure, Catherine King, told Federal Parliament this week:

 

“We have made a capped contribution of $2.2 billion towards the early works of Suburban Rail Loop East, and release of that funding is contingent on the program meeting the conditions under the National Land Transport Act as is any project that the Commonwealth invests funding in – which includes project proposal reports which we have not received from the Victorian Government yet.”

 

These comments cast doubt on any Federal funding actually being provided to the SRL and come as the project continues to face a $20 billion funding shortfall as critical infrastructure projects across Melbourne’s rapidly growing outer suburbs and regional Victoria continue to be cut, delayed and ignored under Labor.

 

 

[facthunter]

How about quoting your source for this? Nev

[red750]

TV

[red750]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/death-taxes-victoria-considers-probate-031609285.html

 

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/grieving-families-to-cop-death-tax-by-stealth-under-proposed-supreme-court-probate-fee-hike/news-story/0fa76d550c8c88595a4381105d1cadf4

 

https://engage.vic.gov.au/review-of-probate-fees

 

https://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/news/probate-office-fee-changes-proposed-by-government

 

https://www.sheppnews.com.au/national/death-and-taxes-victoria-considers-probate-fee-hike/

 

Oops, sorry Nev, I dared  comment on the Vic ALP, while you can throw whatever shit you like at the LNP. I made it all up!!!

[facthunter]

It's pretty much your full time job. I don't reckon POLITICS should be a feature on a site like this AS a moderator, Your job is to be even handed and not give contributors a hard time when YOU don't like what they say... 

  Who did the summary? You list five sources, some pretty unreliable and any one can cherry pick the bits that fit the case they want to make..  Get the truth in politics these days is well nigh impossible and I come here for aeroplane stuff primarily which  is becoming less and less of the content .  Nev

[red750]

30 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I don't reckon POLITICS should be a feature on a site like this AS a moderator,

It has nothing to do with me being a moderator. I am an individual who is entitled to my own opinions. If they are contrary to yours, too bad.

 

You seem to think ALP pollies farts don't stink, while you can throw muck any way you like at the Libs or Nats. It is that attitude that caused Old Koreelah to pull up stumps.

 

I only use my moderator authority to make corrections requested by contributors when their edit times have exhausted, to delete spam posts from people flogging drugs, fake documents and the like. I have the authority more for Recreational Flying, for the content I produce for that site. If I was the kind of person to overuse their authority, I would delete any post of yours that I didn't like. I haven't done that, or changed them. I have raised my objections, but you get offensive. Don't tell me what I can or can't think.

[facthunter]

You shortened my post and  thereby altered the meaning of it. You called ME offensive. if I question anything you do That's NOT even handed. You've constantly over reacted to my stuff.. I get that you don't like me but that shouldn't alter the way you deal with things. I don't tell you what you can THINK It's what you often PRINT what worries me and it's for the good of the site overall that I  post what I have. It's an OPEN forum mate.  Nev

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

You shortened my post and  thereby altered the meaning of it.

Whoa there, Neddy.

 

I very often pick the eye out of a post so that my response is directly related to that eye. In my opinion, doing that makes it clear what my response is about. If I simply quoted the whole post, how would you know what I was actually commenting upon? Also I often just quote a few word as signal to the author that I've acknowledged a post.

 

I agree that we've been bashing the politics a bit, but hasn't politics got its oar into just about everything that is happened at the moment - climate, power generation, EVs, Native Title claims, ad nauseum 

 

Of late discussions have been pretty divisive, but I think that we know each other well enough to know which side of a fence each stands on. I see no problem with someone heaping manure on the political party they don't like. We soon get to know each other's politics, just as we get to know each other's weird senses of humour. What we should not be happy with is slinging matches that can cause people to stop participating. I think it's fair to say that Octave doesn't see eye to eye with me about EVs, but we often agree on other subjects, or laugh at the same jokes. I've been annoyed with Facthunter's posts at time, but, what the hell, being annoyed is MY problem. It is up to me to deal with MY annoyance before I start clattering on the keyboard.

[Jerry_Atrick]

OK.. back on track.  At this stage, it looks like a proposal. But to be honest, there is a bit of a funding issue Vic seems to have to deal with. And one has to look at all options,  (is it) Jacinta Allan seems to be a a similar predicament to Joan Kirner.. taking over from a premier who has decided the bed they made is no longer comfy to continue as the people's premier, so pass the baton, which is a poisoned chalice, to the next one in line. Trust me, I know what it is like as that is what I have now, and it takes a certain person to be able to take it on (and I am not saying I am that sort of person, by the way, or at least haven't been given the seniority requisite for what needs to be done).

 

This is an article that I read this morning, which brought back the memory of the Kirner reign: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/unprecedented-level-of-bastardry-in-allan-government-hospital-cuts-20240628-p5jpm7.html

 

Now, The Age isn't exactly sympathetic to Labor, but they are more even-handed than many others. However, assuming what was in the article represented mostly fact, it outlines a real problem. She is effectively from he shadow of Andrews, who was a very powerful figure. She doesn't have the same gravitas as Andrews and is not independent of his administration. To be fair to her, it's a tough gig, made tougher because of her association with the Andrews government, because any action she takes that can be perceived as an admission that the debt issue is now not such a great idea will be an admission her participation in the government wasn't great, whether or not she had anything to do with it. And then you have the internal politics that comes with the territory. That is why it would have been better to find an MP not part of the cabinet to do something.. someone independent of the previous administration would be able to take action without bringing themselves into as much controversy.

 

So, she has little choice than to propose ways that raise cash secretly before announcing them. However, if the above article is anything to go by, then she can't just railroad things.

 

Frankly, if she put a sunset clause on the probate fees rise, I think it is not a bad idea. Unlike Kennett, who raised all rates by was it  $100, whether you live in Toorak or Sunshine, this affects people who can probably afford it; over $5m in assets, finding $15K will not normally be too hard. But of course, have to work out how much it is likely to contribute.

 

I still think that the idea of borrowing when they did was right as it presented a perfect opportunity for much needed investment at very low rates - certainly less than Toll are charging the public today; I recall checking the bonds they had in the markets and thought they were fixed interest. Of course renewals and new debt will be higher. But, hopefully, if they had variable rate bonds, they took interest rate swaps to effectively fix the rate of the bonds.

 

 

[red750]

I don't have real proof, and I wasn't there, but I heard of a kid who had asthma and was having great difficulty breathing. His father called for an ambulance, but was told "We won't come, because he is not having a heart attack."

[Jerry_Atrick]

That may be true, but all that shows is at that time, demand exceeded supply and they needed to prioritise. Spike on demand happen so the question becomes do we want to have so much capacity that we can meet every possible spike in demand?

 

However, if this sort of thing becomes systemic, then, yeah it needs to be looked at.

 

It can also come to management; there is a crisis in A&E here and after attending it twice last week, my observation is that it is as much about management as it is about funding. The A&E consultant who finally saw me agreed.