Australians are taxed to death.
First, they take up to 47% of your income with income tax and the Medicare levy.
Spend what’s left? 10% GST.
Buy a home? Get smashed with stamp duty, then locked into land tax, council rates, water rates, maintenance levies, and a string of compliance fees.
Drive a car? You’re paying fuel excise, rego, tolls, luxury car tax, and stamp duty on insurance.
Try to invest or save? Cop capital gains tax, interest income tax, and dividend tax, even on your own retirement.
Your super gets taxed going in, taxed on earnings, and taxed coming out — and if you die, your beneficiaries might get taxed too.
Then there’s insurance stamp duties, sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco, airport levies, import duties, luxury taxes, and more.
Want to run a small business? Brace for payroll tax, licensing fees, compliance costs, company tax, and ASIC fees.
Even working off the land hits you with water licenses, environmental levies, and carbon offsets. And through it all, inflation quietly erodes the little you're allowed to keep.
By the end, between visible taxes and hidden charges, you're lucky to hold on to 30–40% of your actual earnings, and you'll likely spend 100% of that on your most very basic necessities.