AusFinance

Grattan's modelling shows that Australians who draw down their super at the minimum rate when they retire will leave the equivalent of 65 per cent of their original super balance unspent by the age of 92.

Tax payer subsidy for inheritance?

that many retirees are net savers, with their super balances growing for decades after they retire, for fear of outliving their savings.

"This is not how it was meant to be.

Isn't it ? How a something works is surely representative of how it was designed.

Does anyone have any advice or opinions they can share about ethically-conscious ASX ETFs?

There's a few lists around, for example:

• https://www.fool.com.au/2024/12/21/which-3-ethical-asx-etfs-performed-the-best-in-2024/
• https://www.canstar.com.au/investor-hub/10-top-ethical-investment-funds/

But it's difficult to have confidence in any of these ETFs without looking into them extensively, so I was hoping I might be able to leverage the community knowledge if people here have already looked into them.

I figure many funds may be less ethical than they put on. For example, ASX:VETH excludes fossil fuels, but has a large exposure to the Big Four banks, who are big investors in fossil fuels.

Also, return figures might be misleading if a fund's ethical criteria bias its holdings towards certain industries, meaning the returns could be boosted by one-off events in those industries. For example, Motley Fool notes that ASX:ETHI is biased towards US tech stocks, including Apple and NVIDIA, and so its performance last year was boosted by the AI landrush.

Fossil fuels and weapons are my highest priorities for exclusion, if that's useful context.

But in their new estimates, published last week, they say those super tax concessions will now cost the government $59.5 billion in 2025-26, which is $9.4 billion more than they were forecasting in January.

Would be chealer just to ditch Super and pay pensions? Or remove many of the tax concessuons anyway. That horse has bolted though I guess.

Earlier this year, the economist Chris Richardson said our super system was already acting like "a reverse Robin Hood" because it was taking money from poorer Australians and giving it to the rich.

Ahhh

My question is around pty Ltd taxation. Small businesses pay tax at 25 percent or so right.

So is this tax paid on the gross income or am I correct in assuming is paid on the gross profit?

Example

Company bills labour out at 100 an hour for 40 hours

This equates to 4000 dollars gross profit.

Is tax paid at this point paying 1000 dollars in tax.

Or do you then subtract say 50 dollars an hour of wages for 40 hours resulting I'm a net profit of 2000 then pay tax on 2000 dollars left in the companies account of 500 dollars tax?

Then the employee pays their share of tax on the 2000 dollars the company paid to them?

Secondly, if the company pays super on the hours worked, do they pay tax after super is deducted or before super is deducted from profits?

Sorry if this is confusing I'm very confused to begin with.

I Want to talk to an accountant but this time of year isn't the best for that, so I'm just trying to get some understanding before I go in and talk to one in the new year.

Interested in recommended reading on or around Finance or Investment ?

I am currently reading "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb and am finding it fantastic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fooled_by_Randomness

I came to it from a Howard Marks YT lecture where he referred to it and thought more and thought there might be suggestions here ?

I have a bunch of books by John Kenneth Galbraith i plan to get to and have read Peter Lynch, Buffett, Munger etal

Announcement with Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTA3sKjvlio

In short:

Close to 200,000 households are either already breaching their mortgage contracts, or risk doing so, as the surging cost of home insurance forces many to dump their policies.

The insurance industry says price rises are out of their control due to factors including rising house prices and inflation as well as extreme weather.

What's next?

Financial counsellors are calling for the government to regulate pricing in the sector.

Original URL (paywalled): https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/all-my-assets-are-in-crypto-how-will-this-affect-my-pension-20241112-p5kpys.html

This has to be a fake question for clickbait, right?

Was originally with AAMI, and noticed they had quietly dropped my covered rate to $7,500. If I was willing to pay more, I could be insured for $10,500 max. This is for a 2008 top spec Nissan 350z, which you couldn't look at for anything less than $17,000. My premiums for comprehensive were about to go up to $141 a month (despite being with them for 5 years with no claims) so I checked with Shannons, and they covered to $20,000 for $146 a month. Always pays to check how much you're covered, as if my car was written off, I'd be getting less than half it's worth. Outrageous.

While not Aus specific it's a good look at ETFs for those interested. Paywalled link below, non paywalled link above.

https://www.ft.com/content/22663af0-7e17-4477-9dde-71354042b6ef

• In short: The federal government says it is prepared to ban debit card surcharges from January 1, 2026, subject to a review underway by the Reserve Bank.

• It is unclear how much Australians pay in debit card surcharges each year, but Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says "it punches a big hole in your wallet" when they are added up.

• What's next? As the RBA continues its review, the government says it is sending a warning to the banks and payment services providers that unless they stop charging "excessive" surcharges, the government will crack down.

I knew their fees were a little on the high side for US stuff, but my god, the FX rate itself is fucking horrible.

Right now the mid-market rate per Wise is 1.501.

At the same time, SW's FX rate is 1.470.

So the total cost of USD -> AUD FX is really not actually just the 0.60% from FX fees, but more like ~2% due to the terrible FX rate (plus maybe the 0.6% on top of that if the listed FX rate isn't counting that).

There's a hefty $110 AUD fee for transfering non-AU securities out of SW, but given their atrocious FX rate it might actually be cheaper to eat that fee (buying something stable like a cash/bonds ETF so that it can be sold somewhere else) than be subject to their conversion rate.

I am actually shocked at how bad this is!?

Any thoughts on doing so if you have ?

The Australian Taxation Office says Australia's controversial sovereign citizen movement has used tax time to spread misinformation about taxes, including the claim "lodging is voluntary".

The ABC understands the authority is investigating complaints about one woman from Queensland, who claims she is a "spiritual accountant" and is allegedly advising people on how to avoid taxes.

Morgan Stanley estimates that data centres are currently using 5 per cent (1,050 MW) of the electricity on Australia's power grid and that is expected to grow to 8 per cent (2,500 MW) by 2030.

Some estimates even suggest they could require up to 15 per cent of the power on the grid by then.

"I appreciate there is definitely going to be property owners in high-rises that will be frustrated ... but the premise that a person living in a $2 million, $3 million, $5 million penthouse should pay exactly the same rates on the ground floor unit isn't a fair model," he said.

What a read. Interesting how no one has been charged on The Philippines.:(