I'm a reasonably laid-back, happy person and few things ruffle my feathers.
But this one thing really pisses me off. It's the double whammy of taxes on insurance policies of which I have:
- Motor vehicle insurance (not third-party compulsory)
- House and contents insurance
- House and landlord's insurance
When the Goods and Services Tax was introduced in Australia, I totally agreed with the concept as it is a user-pays tax. I'm all for user pays - don't buy it, you don't get taxed.
The Howard Government that introduced it guaranteed us that a range of other state and federal taxes would be abolished. Many were.
But state and territory stamp duty wasn't abolished on insurance policies while GST was added. Immediately, all insurance policies cost 10% more.
If it wasn't bad enough to be paying stamp duty for governments to squander money, now we have to pay stamp duty AND GST.
In the clip above you can see that my premium is: $539.54
I choose to use a Broker so I pay: $98.26 in fees and commission (insurance underwriters get a trailing commission!) I could save $48.26 (plus the GST component) by dealing direct with the underwriters. Next year.
Taxes
Stamp Duty is $53.41 that goes to the Queensland Government
GST is $63.79 that goes to the Australian Government
The GST charged INCLUDES the stamp duty and all brokerage and commission costs. That means we pay GST on stamp duty - that's what pisses me off.
I'm not against paying tax, but I think this is grossly unfair.
What do you think?
