dazza 38 Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Hi all, I have seen on Bigpond a few companies ripping customers off using the carbon tax as a excuse. Eg- a funeral business, trying to charge a family a extra $55 to bury their love one.The A%^hole lady on the phone said "even the dead still have to pay the carbon tax". Well I have to give credit where credit is due.That is not what Labour has implemented.Some companies are trying to make a buck out of this.Be careful.
fly_tornado Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 the GST was awesome, something that sold for $3 was supposed to be $3.33 GST inc but always ended up @ $3.49 inc. your less likely to notice $0.16 but everything went up for no good reason.
flindersflyer Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Should charge politicians a mouth movement tax.
Bryon Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Should charge politicians a mouth movement tax. It would be no use doing that, all they would do, would be to simply vote themselves a payrise to cover the cost of the tax, the admin costs and annual indexation of the tax......plus 10% for future increases I cant find a pig snout in the trough emoticon
Bubbleboy Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 I know this is not Carbon Tax related but today while eating my "Subway" lunch, I was thinking how I had just been ripped off! For those who have been to a Subway eating joint you would know you can have a great choice of salad items added all for the one cost. Today I thought some beetroot would be nice so asked for that and was told it would be an additional charge. Now they didnt give me a discount for the cucumber, jalapenos, tomato, onion and what ever else was in the selection I DIDNT have but still charged me for a few slices of beetroot. Making a two breadroll and two drink lunch, the young lad was helping dad today, a total of $28. Bloody hell! Scotty
djpacro Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 ..Today I thought some beetroot would be nice so asked for that and was told it would be an additional charge... I sometimes order a cheese or tomato sandwich - or tomato and cheese depending on which is cheaper - always an argument as they always try to charge the more expensive option. Toasted sandwinches always cost extra and if they burn the toast the carbon tax goes through the roof.
Riley Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 I sometimes order a cheese or tomato sandwich - or tomato and cheese depending on which is cheaper - always an argument as they always try to charge the more expensive option. Toasted sandwinches always cost extra and if they burn the toast the carbon tax goes through the roof. Brings to mind many years ago in a small eatery in country Norfolk, UK where, amongst other items of fare, the menu offered both cheese & tomato sandwiches and slices of toast. I requested a toasted cheese & tomato sandwich and was advised by the lady behind the counter that it wasn't possible because it wasn't offered on the menu. No amount of persuasion (or what I thought, logic) was able to change her mind. I could only assume that the completed sandwich wouldn't fit into her toaster. 40 years on and I still laugh when I think of it.
Gnarly Gnu Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Hi all, I have seen on Bigpond a few companies ripping customers off using the carbon tax as a excuse.Eg- a funeral business, trying to charge a family a extra $55 to bury their love one. Well the funeral companies costs would certainly have increased on July 1 so their fees could be expected to rise some degree or are you just disputing the amount? The power costs are higher, superannuation is higher, A/C install & servicing much higher and so it goes on for all Australian businesses. I wonder about the crematorium aspect also; not sure how these are powered? The local aluminium in the Jabiru engines just went up by $380 per tonne. The carbon tax is a reverse tariff - it taxes local business without harming imported goods or services.
turboplanner Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 The Funeral Tax was for a burial, not as you would have expected for a cremation (where we've only just been told a carcinogenic cocktail is emitted) The local Councils are already in on the act, announcing rates increase. What Julia didn't comprehend, and didn't set up a protocol for was this type of gouging, which is going to hurt the average family badly.
fly_tornado Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 We live in the age of handout politics, people vote for whoever has the biggest handout.
turboplanner Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Er.....isn't this a big take off rather than a hand out?
cscotthendry Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 We live in the age of handout politics, people vote for whoever has the biggest handout. Actually we live in the age of "for-profit" everything. When we were sold the fraud of privatisation, they said the private sector is always more "efficient". In reality, all we get from private enterprise owning public infrastructure is the least service at the highest price, to produce the largest profit. The age of the bottom line rules.
fly_tornado Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Privatisation made a few people very wealthy, which is the point of the exercise...
cscotthendry Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Privatisation made a few people very wealthy, which is the point of the exercise... Something like the Brother-in-law effect...
ExJourno Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 the GST was awesome, something that sold for $3 was supposed to be $3.33 GST inc but always ended up @ $3.49 inc. your less likely to notice $0.16 but everything went up for no good reason. *3.30... (10% GST).... but then there was also the issue where you had to remove a particular tax/taxes off the business's purchase cost of the goods, add your margin then add GST. It created an anomoly at my family's general store... specifically with sales of Coca Cola. Our shop bought coke by the pallet. The next nearest store bought a few boxes here and there.... so we paid significantly less than they did (close to half) but our sale prices were identical... When GST came in, their sale price went down by 5 or 10c when GST kicked in and ours went up by a few percent. Why? The 10% GST applied to the sale price. The removed taxes applied to the business's purchase price. If you had large profit margins you now had to apply a tax across more of the sale price and were only removing taxes to compensate from a fraction of the price... I don't recall the exact figures, but it went a little like this. $5.99 for two-pack 2L coke. (in the 90s we sold dozens of these a day... nearest supermarket was 20km away) Cost to us, 1.15 per bottle including taxes. Excise, 15%. Gross profit was $3.69. Ie: 1.15 was 115%. Our new cost price became $2 for the twin pack. Add on our $3.69 and you get a sale price of $5.69 plus GST... $6.26 Cost to other store, $2.30 per bottle leaving a profit of 1.40 on the twin pack. New cost: $4. Sale price with same profit is $5.40 plus GST... $5.94 It is not always as simple as it seems - it could be (and I am only surmising) that the funeral home has had costs passed to them and rather than adjust their pricing, they are showing the added cost seperately and legitimately. They could also be gouging. I guess my point is don't immediately assume it is a gouge...
fly_tornado Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 but the selling prices if they went down, never went down the full amount, everyone took the opportunity to bump their margins and the GST was supposed to get rid of the stamp duty on houses which never happened as the Howard government never passed on the full swag they collected with the GST...
ExJourno Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 but the selling prices if they went down, never went down the full amount, everyone took the opportunity to bump their margins and the GST was supposed to get rid of the stamp duty on houses which never happened as the Howard government never passed on the full swag they collected with the GST... You have a point...
cscotthendry Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 *3.30... Cost to us, 1.15 per bottle including taxes. Excise, 15%. Gross profit was $3.69. I guess my point is don't immediately assume it is a gouge... 160% markup is not gouging? That probably wasn't a very good example of the point you were trying to make. If the other store was able to sell the same product at a lower markup and still be profitable, doesn't that suggest your product was overpriced?
fly_tornado Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 I noticed that most places I went in the US cans of soft drink where $1. Most US multinationals work very hard to maintain prices for their stuff in Australia, I am pretty sure if you discount the selling price they will increase your buy price.
ExJourno Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 160% markup is not gouging? That probably wasn't a very good example of the point you were trying to make. If the other store was able to sell the same product at a lower markup and still be profitable, doesn't that suggest your product was overpriced? It was actually an excellent example. The point was price movement at the changeover of GST. In answer to your questions... No and no.
ben87r Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 How do you show the public the effect of the tax? I'm still completely blind as to the effect it will have on my business but know that it is going to effect about 90% of my costs and will further increase when diesel if taxed in 2014. I think that i will have to increase prices a few times between now and then when i realize the full effect of the tax. I think this will be the same with allot if not most small business that don't have the resources to study the whole effect of the tax
ExJourno Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 How do you show the public the effect of the tax? I'm still completely blind as to the effect it will have on my business but know that it is going to effect about 90% of my costs and will further increase when diesel if taxed in 2014. I think that i will have to increase prices a few times between now and then when i realize the full effect of the tax. I think this will be the same with allot if not most small business that don't have the resources to study the whole effect of the tax Just my opinion, but the carbon tax component of price increases will be hard to display for many businesses - as you said. You may well be able to demonstrate the increase to your customers, but it may be too complicated for them to be bothered with. I believe many businesses will give a simplistic "all my costs have increased" coupled with "because of this damned carbon tax" and leave it at that.
dazza 38 Posted July 10, 2012 Author Posted July 10, 2012 www.accc.gov.au/carbon There is alot of information on here.Business can not willy nilly increase their prices of goods and services using the carbon tax as a excuse.They can increase their prices, but the price increase must be substantiated .There are already businesses that are in some serious trouble with the accc . There is examples on the accc website.
turboplanner Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 Just my opinion, but the carbon tax component of price increases will be hard to display for many businesses - as you said. You may well be able to demonstrate the increase to your customers, but it may be too complicated for them to be bothered with. I believe many businesses will give a simplistic "all my costs have increased" coupled with "because of this damned carbon tax" and leave it at that. You've probably encapsulated it I think. The compounding effect will produce genuine cost increases for small to medium businesses which are notorious for not having the money to spend on accurate accounting, and while I hear what you say Dazza, this will be the business layer which has the most effect on costs to the community and the bigger companies who will legitimately pass on their increased costs. The worst of this is that if the Government changes, and a new Government decided to cancel the tax, the momentum will have blurred things so much that no one will know how much to reduce their prices, and we'll just be stuck with a higher consumer price base with the unscrupulous sucking up bigger profit margins.
coljones Posted July 10, 2012 Posted July 10, 2012 I suppose you will have to factor it into other non CPI based price increases eg fuel price changes- 5% per day in some cases, the cost of imported goods, lawyers prices and politicians pay increases. You need to find a middle route. Just increase prices by 5% and blame petrol and lawyers, people will understand much better. most will just say - ah, OK.
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