I might not have thought about this tax topic had not a reader emailed to gently remind me that Barnaby Joyce is not a farmer, as I said last week, but an accountant. I could be forgiven for being lured in to that way of thinking by the way Barnaby portrays himself to the electorate. He loves a photo opportunity down on the farm, wearing the big hat and looking suitably weather-beaten. Barnaby does come…
There have been few occasions when dividends made it on to the front pages or lead item TV news. The first time was when Treasurer Paul Keating introduced the dividend imputation scheme in 1987, largely as a way of eliminating the double-taxing of company dividends. From that day, Australian investors were given franking credits on the dividends they received on their shares. This had the welcome effect of boosting the investment return for the investor…
There’s an Aussie saying – ‘they’re doing it tough’, which can mean any variation on the theme of hardship, be it financial, emotional, physical or all three at once. When the word ‘hardship’ is employed, it typically means financial struggle: in other words, privation, destitution, poverty, austerity, penury, impecuniousness and so on. If you search the word ‘hardship’ online you will find a range of links purporting to explain (if you are doing it tough),…