ronburgundy

Yeah mate, we go to Hoges for our shopping and kebabs!

I wouldn't have thought there is anything 'illegal' in charging a 'standardised' fee? A dealership's costs impact on their bottom line, some might make more on it than others. Am I missing something? For example, not that I can remember the last time I ate Macca's, but don't they charge the same price in say a CBD store for a Big Mac as they do in the outer burbs? You can't tell me the cost of running that CBD store is the same as the suburban one though...

I just spent the weekend in Daylesford actually, went up (from Werribee) through Bacchus and on to Western, and then on the way home pretty much Western all the way, around to Derrimut road exit. 90 kays in an hour, with not TOO much speeding! Sitting mostly around 115-120 on the Western, and probably a bit faster through the roads out of Daylesford itself. Nice area, should be good for a cruise. I'm easy - would be happy to do a Western Suburbs start rather than driving from Tarneit to Dandenong by 9:30 on a Sunday!

I've seen client's accounts (as their accountant) - and yes I see them BEFORE they go to the Tax Office I'm talking turnover of say $20m and profit (before tax) of $1m. That's 5%, a hell of a lot of risk that you need to turn over that much to make that level of profit. And that is INCLUDING service/parts.

:biggthumpup: I find it weird going in to say, Good Guys or Harveys or something like that - and even when selling my old car - people now have this 'entitlement' to not pay a ticketed price on something. People truly believe that it is merely a guide and that they shouldn't have to actually pay that much.

Gotta agree with most - I just don't like them on the G6ET

Smicky after that last lot I think a few blokes will be needing these untitled.bmp

Agreed that servicing costs at dealerships are absurd - but that's cos that's where they make their dough. I have clients that have car dealerships and their margins are almost non-existent; parts and labour is where they pick up the slack. Speaking of service (and I use that term very loosely!) mine went in for the 3000 klm service and I asked them to fix the fuel gauge as it seems to be indicative of a 52 litre tank. I've only just looked at the bit of paper they gave me back and it said "could not find fault at this time". WTF??!! There's only one time the gauge IS right - when I've just filled it! How could they not find the fault?

There's something ironic about a millionaire knocking back an aid package isn't there....!

You'll find a lot of those payments, and some of the upcoming ones, are linked to Family Tax Benefit eligibility

Bear in mind that for all the money the government gives out, it gets back 36% of it. Say it gives out $110: $10 = GST $30 = Assumed 30% tax on whoever's pocket you put the money into when you spend it. Hence it gets back $40 out of $110. Obviously a very basic analysis. Having said that I'm pretty sure there's no GST on overseas travel!

The problem is though 6 of our largest 10 trading partners (I think) are Asian. They've been hit harder than us. Not much good in us producing if people aren't there to buy! The other issue is it is political. All of a sudden we say to China "we don't want to buy your XXX, we want to buy our own" and suddenly they turn around and say "well in that case we won't buy your wool anymore". Over a billion people in China, 20odd million in Australia - you work out who loses there...

I'm with ANZ too and they betting effing pass it on after not having passed on the last couple in full! If I get the full1% I'll be down to 5.26% I think. Also re fixing, you'll find that the fixed rates aren't necessarily the same. Banks have to build in their 'forecast' when putting in a fixed rate, so when you're looking at say a 3 year fixed rate it reflects the bank's long term view on rates, less a 'discount' to make it a bit more attractive for people to opt out of variable. I think I'm going to fix half of mine soon - not game enough to fix all of it cos then I'd be taking a punt that I know more about what the economy's going to do than ANZ's panel of economists! Having said that I've got a package with them that allows me one free change each year, so it's not costing me anything to fix and then if I wanted to go back I'd only have to wait one year and that wouldn't cost me either. PLUS I get to keep the offset account aligned to the variable part of my loan.

Was actually thinking the same thing on the way home yesterday IB - given the amount of 'free' advice many get from this site, I think there's no excuse for not being a donating member! In fact I think I'll sign up today :banghead2:

I believe you'll get the full $950 then. I'm gonna have some pi55ed clients who haven't lodged tax returns I tells ya! I think I was under $80k for 2008 but would be over this year, so I'll get the $950 as opposed to $650 or whatever it is. RE: All those moaning that those over $100k are getting shafted... at the risk of pointing out the obvious, you know this is LABOUR government, right?! Not that I disagree with you of course (Jeff for President I say!), but I'm just sayin' I can only imagine the reason why it wouldn't get pumped into infrastructure... well OK there's two possible reasons. 1) Those in charge are utter gimps. A distinct possibility. 2) If you only pump the money into say, hospitals - you 'confine' the amount of people that will benefit. The rationale I think is that 'everyone is feeling the pinch, so everyone should benefit'. Taxable income isn't a great measure; some of my wealthiest clients earn no more than $75k because they have structures in place (family trusts and companies) that mean we arrange their affairs so they pay no more than 30% in tax. If they have excess income, some goes to them and the rest goes to a company. For the 2008 year, the 30% tax bracket only went up to $75k - hence there are a lot of legitimately wealthy individuals who will get the handout. All that said, it's the only easily identifiable and administered solution. As others have said, those who are *Ray Martin voice* honest Aussie battlers who happen to make a decent crust and God forbid have cracked the ton in terms of salary... well, they're gonna miss out. The only way to make it fairer would be to asset test rather than income test - again that is highly impractical as once again wealthy people have feck all assets in their own names.

Not 1000% sure but I haven't seen anything re the $950 cash bonus to suggest just because you're over doesn't mean your wife can't get it. Don't hang me on that one though. I guess it isn't so much a case of how much difference can $950 make but if you consider that it is being given to 8.7 million people or thereabouts, and hope to God that most of them spend every last cent of it, that's over $8bn being injected into the economy. Add in the drought payments, interest rate cuts, education bonuses (which I believe is $950 per child for eligible families) etc etc - it all adds up. At least I guess that's what they're hoping. I can't imagine it will keep us from recession but merely delay it and perhaps reduce the depths to which the economy plunges. Stem the tide until the cyclical nature of the economy starts to hopefully kick into gear.