Slightly OT: Questions on Australia

[lux_06]

Helio what suburb you in? im in mitcham, what LFS you go to? seaview? and agree, adelaide does get overlooked big time for what we have, best thing i ever did was get my scuba liscense, reefs are wicked round here,

buuuuut i havent been since the kid got taken off glenelg.....

J - the 2 cities you mentioned have the highest real estate prices and really not that much to offer IMO but proberly more simular cities to the states, its just im used to very little traffic on the roads!!! and the traffic in melb and sydney sux, but the casinos are biggest there!!!! dont look past perth or brisbane as thats where the lifestyle is...

Angel fish - that is on total income i believe, by deducions do you mean, putting the running costs of a car down to it and that sort of stuff?

 

[lux_06]

so do you guys that are american think that tax is pretty stiff or what?

 

[dantodd]

It's quite high compared to the U.S.

Here is the 2006 tax schedule for comparison.

upto $15,100 total tax is 10%

$15,100 to $61,300 total tax is $1,510.00 plus 15% of the amount over 15,100

$61,300 to $123,700 total tax is $8,440.00 plus 25% of the amount over 61,300

$123,700 to $188,450 total tax is $24,040.00 plus 28% of the amount over 123,700

$188,450 to $336,550 total tax is $42,170.00 plus 33% of the amount over 188,450

$336,550 and up total tax is $91,043.00 plus 35% of the amount over 336,550

There are tons of exemptions and tax credits here in the states... home mortgage interest, the purchase of certain vehicles, individual deductions for each person supported on the income, education expenses, certain other activities the gov't wants us to support.

 

[JHardman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7842907#post7842907 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lux_06
so do you guys that are american think that tax is pretty stiff or what?

It really depends on what is not taxed. Like Dan pointed out, here we get to deduct thing like mortgage inerest, which make a huge difference for the avaerage family.

I assume there is something similar in AU too, but it would be nice to know for sure.

 

[Angel*Fish]

lux_06 - Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate, right ??? Can you grow oranges? Is the water temp. at the beach comfortable? Here on the Gulf of Mexico it's like bath water during the summer...

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7840397#post7840397 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHardman
I am pretty sure that is on net income.

I am not too worried as long as they do not start taxing gambaling income.

You actually play poker for a living? That pretty interesting...

I've been trying to interest my family to move to Australia and go into the restaurant business there - everybody's ready to go except my husband.

 

[edr42]

I recon that Sydney, Melbourne and Perth have a lot more to offer than Adelaide and Brisbane. The reefs are cold water reefs, and you should be aware that South Australia is home to quite a few great whites, fantastic if you like cage diving, but a little unnerving otherwise.
Still, sea dragons are worth the risk, but i've seen sea dragons in Sydney Harbour (weedy not leafy).

In the end, if you don't like where you end up, you can always just up and move to another city

 

[JHardman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7846133#post7846133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angel*Fish
You actually play poker for a living? That pretty interesting...

Well, interesting is not what I would call it. Mind numbing and very difficult is what I call it. Trust me no one plays poker for a living because it is "fun", they play for money. If they tell you that they are full of it or trying to bluff you.

It can be very stressful, especially for family and friends that do not play. It is just very hard for them to comprehend that winning or losing (insert some large figure that you find shocking) a day is "no big deal" and is really just standard. I pretty much never talk to anyone anymore about "how much".

I still keep my hand in the IT industry too, if for nothing else it provides me with something that gets my mind off the game. That is also what allows me to qualify so high on the AU visa scores.

 

[lux_06]

Angel fish, our climate is sub temperate, yes you can grow oranges but the water is cooler then in some of the eastern states! its more refrreshing then bathing water temps!!!

yeh the sharks here suk, as we deplete the sea of all their food they seem to be around local beaches alot more these days. BUT they tracked a Great white recently that swam all the way around the bottom of victoria and up to the bottom of the barrier reef so your not that safe up there in sydney!!!

ive been diving under rapid bay jetty down here and seen the leafy sea dragons that have been responsible for creating the massiv marine parks about to be established, these guys were living in a reef of beer bottles that had been thrown off the jetty!!!!

J - i reckon you must have balls to put money on the line each day for incomes sake but good on ya, if i could make a wage and legaly not pay the wasteful friggin government i would too!!!

bad day for me, my fish in qt seem to have velvet, argh..... and just been told the potters angel i had on hold for me didnt make it, sad but at least i didnt fork out 200 bucks for it to die in my tank...

 

[shake]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7844493#post7844493 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHardman
It really depends on what is not taxed. Like Dan pointed out, here we get to deduct thing like mortgage inerest, which make a huge difference for the avaerage family.

I assume there is something similar in AU too, but it would be nice to know for sure.

Only on investments and not on your residential/home mortgage

 

[Angel*Fish]

Angel fish, our climate is sub temperate, yes you can grow oranges but the water is cooler then in some of the eastern states! its more refrreshing then bathing water temps!!!

Thanks for the info - the sharks don't sound so good though --
We just looked it up and the water temp. here right now is 86 F - that's pretty warm - our pool water stays warm like that too.


JHardman, have you looked into Brisbane? I noticed it's only a day's drive to edr42's Townsville, BTW Actually Townsville itself looks pretty good to me. Nice and warm.


edr42 - Are there a lot of good Mexican food restaurants in Townsville?

Mind numbing and very difficult is what I call it. Trust me no one plays poker for a living because it is "fun", they play for money. If they tell you that they are full of it or trying to bluff you

I believe it - I caught the end of some kind of card playing championship and the guy who came in second looked like he wanted to cry even though he walked away with $75,000. :lol:

 

[dantodd]

Well, tournaments and grinding are totally different beasts.

The guys you see on TV are a new kind of pro. Playing tourneys can be fun but the variance is brutal.

 

[JHardman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7849701#post7849701 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dantodd
Well, tournaments and grinding are totally different beasts.

The guys you see on TV are a new kind of pro. Playing tourneys can be fun but the variance is brutal.

VERY different.

A typical online session will be playing 4-6 short handed tables (read fast and heavy action at about 500 hands an hour) for 2-4 hours a day, longer if there is a fish I am working.

A typical live session will be 8+ hours or until I start getting too out of it or all the weaker players leave the game.

Cash games are much more stressful too, as with a tournament you can not lose more than your entry fee's. The cash games I play in live are uncapped no limit games where you can bring as much money to the table as you want and you can lose it all to one bad beat, rebuy and lose it again. Not too mention there aren't too many tournaments with entry fee's equal to the money people are putting into play in these types of games.

Tournaments are MUCH easier, if longer in duration. But as Dan has so well mentioned the variance is very high, with the best tournament players only getting their entry fees back from the prize pool about 60% of the time and only make the deep money (1st - 3rd) about 5% of the time. Tournaments are kind of like the lottery for players, if you can get lucky and win a big one, it's great money, but you could easily spend that just in entry fee's each year trying to win one. It is kind of funny, in that much of best cash games are where they are playing a WPT or WSOP tournament...

 

[OrionN]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7849837#post7849837 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHardman
.....
...., longer if there is a fish I am working.

...

That must be a sucker like me.

 

[JHardman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7849906#post7849906 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Minh Nguyen
That must be a sucker like me.

Anybody with your last name can not be a loser.

 

[dantodd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7850554#post7850554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JHardman
Anybody with your last name can not be a loser.

LOL....

not to mention entertaining as hell when mixed with alcohol.

 

[edr42]

edr42 - Are there a lot of good Mexican food restaurants in Townsville?

There aren't a lot of them, so i'm sure another would go down well. Townsville is not exactly the busiest place in Australia, in fact its down right dull at times.
BUT there is the reef, and the weather is nice, for instance as i write this, it is mid winter but there are no clouds in the sky, bright sunshine, and it is 26 degrees (78 degrees F).

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7859604#post7859604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edr42
There aren't a lot of them, so i'm sure another would go down well. Townsville is not exactly the busiest place in Australia, in fact its down right dull at times.
BUT there is the reef, and the weather is nice, for instance as i write this, it is mid winter but there are no clouds in the sky, bright sunshine, and it is 26 degrees (78 degrees F).

It all sounds good

 

[lux_06]

lol yeh its nice where i am too, just its supposed to be raining and everything is brown when it should be green in the middle of winter!!!

 

[Dan]

The tax structures here are misleading. Because we were set up as a republic, the local governing entities tax us heavy. Even with all the federal tax deductions, most middle class Americans pay 40-50% in total taxes to federal, state, and local governments (i.e. property tax, school tax, socialsecurity, sales tax, gas tax, phone tax, beer tax, clownfish tax, etc.). Oops. scratch that last one. Just pretend you never saw it......it didn't appear......it's only a dream.........

Dan