Re: Yo Aussies - Tax?
Does having British citizenship help you get into Canada? Not sure if it being a Commonwealth country means anything in that respect. Because of my ancestry I can swing one of those, I think.
There's no extras like medical tax? (In the UK tax up to ±30k (squid) is 20%, but then there's 11% "National Insurance", which isn't income tax it's just calculated in exactly the same way with almost identical thresholds...
Okay, you pay a medicare levy, but it's only 1.5%. And if you earn a lot more money than I do right now there's also the medicare surcharge, which is another 1%.
http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/17482.htm
There's also GST of 10% (I think... someone told me it's up to 11% the other day though), but of course you don't really notice that, it's just an invisible factor in the high cost of living.
I'm living in Dubai, which is great for $$$ and sun (we're not expecting too see a cloud for another ten months) but there is more bul**** than I care to deal with at the moment. I have no plan to live in the UK in the near future, at least not until IngSoc are out of power and I can walk down the street without being stabbed. I work as a Structural Engineer and the employment market for that looks OK in Australia, but crap in the US and most other places I would consider living. Canada might be an option, but then have to sort out immigration issues :S
My wife told me that at her job they regularly send people to Dubai, with many amusing/disturbing results. Allegedly one of them got whipped because his wife showed too much ankle.
The job market is okay, but you'd better hurry because the effects of this ****storm are just starting to hit the Australian job market. My work announced 400 layoffs last week, and that's in addition to 400 late last year. Well, they announced it because it had been leaked and was already on the news... this is how it usually happens.
I would avoid Sydney, and probably Melbourne too, unless you have family connections. Both have a very tight rental market atm and so the rents are way up. The best thing to do is to search the online job networks like seek.com.au or careerone.com.au, there are a number of others, and see where your skills might best get you a job. Don't overlook the regional cities either, they are cheaper rent wise and some are crying out for certain professions.
True, my wife was looking at property in Adelaide the other day and it costs half what it does here, and you could throw a rock from there to either the beach or the CBD.
But on the other hand, it's Adelaide.
I'd be more worried about the 10+ years of drought and massive fires than any tax rate.
Meh, fires are out in the sticks and drought only affects people who care about their front lawn or like to wash their cars.
Meh, who wants boring weather. This sort of stuff adds a little excitement.
You want exciting weather, move to Melbourne. You want the world's most boring weather, Perth.
That's not so bad - It was a couple of years ago, and I now think they were spouting ****, but the last report someone gave me from Australia was that there's a ~50% tax rate, but ~30% I can cope with.
Top rate used to go over 50% I think, but you have to earn a lot to be in that bracket. Might've also taken GST and medicare into account, I dunno.
