Me: Hmmm, tax time is coming up, might be a good time to finally get my new rig
ATO: You you have $4000 withheld tax money, how great!
Me: Fuck oath! spend $2500 on the PC and chuck the rest towards my house deposit
ATO: Yo that sounds great, well how about we keep 3000 and give you 1000? Sound cool? cool.
Me: ... Well... Guess no new rig then

Just realised this is going to make no sense to anyone who isn't an Aussie

Damn, those bastards stole 5k from me. Was hoping for a decent return... but nope here's a smidge over 1.

Huh? they hold on to your money? I hope you aussies get a good return on that...

@magicMirror tax!
They give "some" of it back.

@C0D4 Emphasis on the some

My first tax return was 300€. And i havent added much deductions.

@C0D4 sounds like a "loan" more then "tax". Over here, they give you ~6% annual return when they hold on to your money.

@magicMirror

Basically they take a decent portion off the top of wages, and then you can claim "some" of it back, although they make the deductions list smaller every year.

https://ato.gov.au/Rates/...

@irene haha. It's when you get over-taxed because you weren't on the correct tax code in the past, and you get that back eventually (or you can request it any time) when they realise how much you overpaid. I got back around £400 2 years ago, which was was built up from the previous 5 years. Don't remember what I spent it on though .... hmmmmm

@irene No we just trust the government with our money, rookie mistake I know

@irene I can't speak for how it is in other countries, but here in the UK, if you start a new job and don't have the appropriate tax documentation from you're previous job then you get put on a generic tax code. There is a minimum threshold of income, which if you do not make in a single tax year, will mean you pay zero tax, currently it's at £12,500. An example where you could over-pay is:

You haven't worked for the first 9 months of this tax year, you start a new job and work for the remaining 3 months of that tax year and don't make more than £12,500, therefore should not have any income tax. Because you didn't have a P45 form (since you didn't have a previous job), you are put on a generic tax code and your monthly salary is taxed at the standard rate without considering the minimum threshold.

There is some similar here, in Brazil. There is a tax directly deduced from our salary every month. At the tax time, we send the government all the information ( bank amounts, health care etc) and some of them deduce how much we should pay for taxes. So after some months, we receive this part of the money back.

@irene in general - it happens when tax is paid by employer upfront. In Poland I'm highest tax code but having wife and kids helps to mitigate that and pay less taxes. Or rather have the return. It's possible to tell that one will pay his/her own taxed but it's troublesome to do those calculations each month ;)

@mt3o we have an similar system in Germany.

Yeah so i bought an Alienware last year which was super expensive.
I found out from the accountant that what ever i am claiming only 1/3 of it you get back per year from the ATO (Australian Tax Office). So in three years time you get the whole claim amount back. So if you expecting the entire claim amount to given back this year best to check again.

Lmao buy the rig and have them send the bill to the tax house