What Tax Bracket Are You in?

Hey all. Just curious to see how many ozbargainers here are riding around in lambos.

Be interesting to hear years of experience, field, and ball park salary if anyone is happy to share in the comment, otherwise the poll is annonymous.

Will be splitting some brackets up.

Poll Options

  • 88
    $0 - $18,200
  • 61
    $18,201 - $45,000
  • 181
    $45,001 - $80,000
  • 367
    $80,001 - $120,000
  • 157
    $120,001 - $150,000
  • 81
    $150,001 - $180,000
  • 271
    $180,001 and over

Comments

  • +1

    Just reminding me how regressive our tax brackets are…

  • +2

    This poll is flawed. $200k for a mid management job is easy these days. $180k+ is too broader category. I want to know how many OzBargainers are actually earning $500k+!!!

    • $200k?? what jobs are you talking about?

      • +3

        Mining, Energy, Finance, Civil Construction etc. Basically any large corporation filled with professionals that sees big revenue's.

      • Banking,law, IT, consulting, medicine…

    • +1

      Wrong website, go to hurlpool, ud start at 200k and go up from there

      • 200k is for people living in cardboard boxes over there.

      • $200k is spat on if you ever say that on there

        • 200k…..is that all, povo motherfker. *spits on you

  • When the ATO is suss 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔😳😳😳😳😳😳

    - This comment was made by the Royal Commission gang

    • I think people are overestimating the ATO on this thread, unless Scotty is in on it and giving them all of our super not-anonymous personal details 😋

      • It’s all funny games and jokes until your last tax return gets “randomly chosen” for an audit.

        Jokes aside, I think ATO is more busy catching all those “smart” guys thinking that they can just deposit their cash-in-hand payments into an ATM and think ATO won’t notice when they don’t declare it in their tax return.

        • I'm yet to be audited, but I've twice had letters from the ATO warning me about my high level of deductions being abnormal for my profession. Although either their stats are garbage, they're lying, or my fellow doctors are really terrible at accounting, because I highly doubt the average deduction for the doctors at a registrar pay level is less than $3000 a year as they claim, as that wouldn't even cover the college fees.

  • -1

    Makes sense. Ozbargainers are smart people =)

  • Deductions!!

    • Yeah my mate buys random stuff then claim it as a deduction….

      You still ended up buying something, it's not a freebie courtesy of the ATO it's just subsidised with your own tax dollars.

  • +3

    Apparently the Top 4% of income earners make up about 30% of the people who voted……

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-21/income-calculator-com…

    • +1

      Ozbargain in a nutshell.
      You don't get rich by spending money frivolously ;).
      But a $180k+ salary does help.

    • +3

      Surely people wouldn't lie on a random ozbargain poll?

    • Thats a very interesting read! Super insightful

  • Ozbargain is full of millionaires

    • +3

      Everyone on hurlpool makes 200k plus or has a million dollar share account which increased 50% this year.

    • +1

      I have billions of (Zimbabwean) dollars.

      • I've got $100billlion. Cost me $20 and I think that was far more than the note was actually worth.

        • Wondering if i can exchange some from the local unimoni? It would be fun for poker night. I raise YOU $2 Billion!!

    • I have roughly 1.3billion VND in my account

  • +1

    My taxable income is a lot lower then my revenue. If you ignore my deductibles I’m doing very well each year. Gotta spend money to make money though.

  • For your question, 11 months experience, engineering field in the public service, 80-90k with pretty good salary growth and lots of promotion prospects.

    Massive overrepresentation of 180k+, especially on a bargain hunting site. Although these days EL2 public servants (my boss :| ) earn up to 190k so not that out there.

    • Wow congrats man - thats awesome for 11 months of experience. My mate is a civil engineer at a small firm and hes getting 60k + super, been there for over a year. He could definitely get more if he moved but said that he's able to wear multiple hats in a small firm and value the experience rather than pay at the moment.

      Surprising to see so many over 180k+. Not surprisng to see that most are in the 45-120 band, interesting to see that majority is in the upper half. Good to know we're all eating relatively well haha.

      • +1

        Yeah. But there's also probably a lot of 'wage inflation'. People can be very insecure about their salary, to the point where they'd inflate it even on an anonymous poll.

        For those of you that did, salary =/= personal worth. Some of the most influential/succesful people to ever live have not been particularly wealthy.

        There's very little correlation between what you earn and your contribution to society (if that's how you want to measure success). Certain jobs (especially in areas of finance) have zero 'real' positive impact but are very well compensated. A school teacher makes a massive contribution but are generally not paid too well.

    • Keep in mind the public service pays peanuts compared to the private sector (despite what you hear about a lack of wage growth).
      Whilst I've no doubt on the other side of this pandemic we will have more public servants than ever it's still much smaller than the private sector too.

      • That was my point, with middle management public servants at 190k certainly there are plenty of others.

        Although not sure about peanuts.On a per-hour rate the public service pays very competitively until you get to more senior positions.

        • Oh your point was confusing then. I guess my point was it may not be as overrepresented here as you thought given most here are in the private sector.
          No doubt per hour public service is great but the poll is in absolute dollar terms and for that private sector is the winner. Lifestyle wise public service is great and one reason I'm looking to go back :)

          • @drprox: Sorry if it wasn't clear.

            My statement of overrepresentation was just based on census statistics. Full time worker mean (not median, so inflated) salary was 90k pa. So definitely 30% above 180 here is way out of proportion.

    • It's pretty uncommon for an EL2 to be paid $180k+. Most public service enterprise agreements have EL2 topping out at $150k.

      SES Band 1 are more likely to be paid around $180k.

      • +1

        Not sure about all departments. The defence one does go up to 190k+. It must be up to 195k now with the recent pay increase. My EL2.2 manager is responsible for about 20 people, so would probably pay significantly better in most high profit sectors. That said, the workload/stress would be pretty low in comparison.

        • Yeah I getcha - the Defence EL2.2 positions are pretty unique in that they almost operate as EL3 or EL4 positions, separate from the straight EL2 band. Most Departments don't have those additional pay bands and instead have EL2 capping out at a similar level to normal Defence EL2s (150k-ish).

          Lucky boss :)

          • @AlanHB: Ah, OK. Interesting, thanks for the info!

          • @AlanHB: In defence, especially in DST, your are pretty much forced to retire at certain age or lose tonnes from your super. I don't know how it works but is like that. So people retire, then come back as a contractor, at contractor rate full time. Crazy…..

    • Not targeted at you directly however - every interaction I've had in the engineering / management / consulting / construction / procurement with a public sector has been dismal. Be it council, power utility or water / waste water…. Majority are bloated, overpaid and under-worked. They're generally held up by a select few individuals pulling everyone along.

      • Would not be surprised if that were true in some if not all areas. However, I worked for a year as an undergrad in the private sector in a similar job and now work for Defence. Just comparing those two, workloads are definitely a lot lower, but I think there is more emphasis on the quality/reliability of outputs in Defence rather than being totally cost driven. In my private job, if we didn't think it would affect sales, and it was not going to cost us money, we did not care about how well something was done. Where I work now every output is scrutinised for accuracy, consistency etc to ensure that we are working to the highest standards.

        Where it does fall down though is in the inefficiency of the management structure and the crappy tender / contract support processes, in my experience so far.

    • Must be a super EL2 (i.e. EL2.2) Typically they're on $130-$150k

    • EL2 now 190k? wow… No wonder it costs us 100Billion to build a few submarines…..

      90k with only 11 months exp is pretty good. As a graduate is normally 60-70k

      • As others have said, it is Defence super EL 2.2. I didn't realise that was different to standard APS EL2 when I posted above. Still a lot though, and there are plenty of them floating around.

        Pretty happy with it yeah, especially since it is public service work/life balance. Got lucky and applied for a job that was advertised poorly so didn't get a lot of applicants.

  • +1

    I work within a medical imaging company. Doing IT getting paid decent moolah but I earn peanuts compared to the radiologists… starting salary is 200 to 350k 1 to 3 yrs exp, 6 yrs plus 450k to 550k and all the directors are on 700k plus

    • +1

      Wow 1-3 years is 200 - 350?? Thats amazing. You may earn peanuts compared to peers but you're on top of the world compared to most haha. Congrats mate

      • Well to be fair it takes on average 12 years of intense study to become one

        • Yup. Thats fair haha, and I assume most don't make it through to the end.

          • @buckethat: It's extremely competitive to even get onto radiology training.

            • @[Deactivated]: that's what all doctors say about their own specialty.

              • @Orico: I'm not a radiologist.

    • +2

      Radiologists have at least 4-6 years of medical school and 7 years of training before they are 'radiologists'.

      • +1

        Yep. Currently early in radiology training.

        I did undergrad (3 years), post grad med (4 years), internship + resident years (3 years). I have most of my training program (5 years if you pass exams promptly), and fellowship (1-2 years) to come. Will end up being 16-17 years before being a consultant. To be fair, pay while you're on the training program isn't too bad at ~$140k+.

        • +1

          buy me a milkshake, moneybags.

  • +2

    Here's my response to the post:
    years of experience: 10-13 years
    field: IT
    ball park salary: 190k + 10% bonus + super

  • +7

    I picked up my brand new 2021 tesla model 3 sr+ this week!

    Absolutely love the car, it took me just over 3 years to save up for it , hard work does pay off !

    My field of work is a professional personal driver I have the licence that allows me to take bookings with clients directly I started out doing uber and grew my business over the last 5+ years so being self employed has taught me things are possible you just have to known what to do to make it happen:)

    http://imgur.com/gallery/NoMv0tm

    • +1

      Congrats mate! Hope you enjoy the fruit of your labour.

    • +3

      is that your girlfriend?

      • +1

        Nah that's my wife I might look alot younger then you think 😊

  • +6

    So the average income around here is 80-120k I presume? I don't know why people would bother using this site if they are making that much money. Maybe it's just me but some of the bargains here can be quite time consuming and a lot of times I wonder myself if it was worth the effort.

    • +4

      I think there’s a huge amount of truth stretching in the poll. So many people earning over 180k. No chance.

      • +1

        For people earning more than 180k.Thats like $100 an hour.
        Its pointless to spend time on ozbargain trying to save a few bucks here and there.
        Some rich people may still do it but if i had that much income i would not bother.
        Even with my modest income i have stopped chasing the cashbacks and dont bother with the get $5 off ,$10 off etc.

        • +4

          you just look for different type of deals. no matter your income getting a good bargain is universal. instead of chasing $5 cashbacks or 2% on purchases you look for good deal on a gaming rig / instead of $5 aldi wine deals you look at grey labels at 40% off / deals on galaxy S21 instead of xiaomi deals on aliexpress etc etc

          • +3

            @May4th: Yep. And with the cost of living at the moment, even if you are on 180k + but say single parent of two children, morgage, kids school fees, etc etc and you're probably saving less than single dude earning 60k pa.

            • +4

              @nigel deborah: in Sydney 180k won't get you far especially with kids. looking at the dumps going for close to 2mil at weekend auctions you wonder how anyone with an "average" salary can get by

          • @May4th:

            you just look for different type of deals.

            Exactly this.

            I'm sure a lot of people here avoid cashbacks and gift card deals altogether.

        • That's not true at all. I earn more than that and still prefer a good bargain. Most people on good money are the same way!

        • +1

          Honestly, getting a bargain is just a feel-good experience for me. The financial impact it will have on me most of the time is very very insignificant. And I think its probably the same for most people.

          I'm not in the top bracket but even if I was, I still think I would feel the same enjoyment from getting the same kinds of deal on things as I do now.

        • I’m not on $180k yet (I’m about 50 off) I do hope to be one day. I’m not sure why I’d stop visiting here to get bargains!

    • Sometimes it's not about the dollar value. Its about that internal urge for bargains.

      E.g. working on deal 2m+ to refurb commercial buildings' IT. Tenders to get best deal and value from vendors. Talking 6 figure differences savings.

      Satisfied by saving $10 on a torch on OZB… can't explain but
      I think it's mental condition.

    • Everyone looks for different bargains. For me, I wouldn't spend $3k+ on a TV but those who are on much higher income than me wouldn't mind dropping that much and still nice to save money and 5% off $3k is $150, which can be spent on something else.

  • -5

    Look at the poll…. so many on over $180000/year ! Wow!

    We can all definitely pay much more tax to fix the aged care debacle

    I do think they can do more to help the less fortunate in society

    Anybody earning over $180000 should be taxed another 25% extra to fund our social welfare and health system.

    It’s only fair, otherwise you get people having caviar in their luxury lodgings while others struggle to pay the bill.

    • +1

      Why is it fair that those that make more have to be taxed more?

      Generally those jobs which are high paying have a high level of responsibilities or requires a lot of education and qualification. It's a bit unfair for someone to go through all fo that just for those who are 'less' fortunate to claim that its 'unfair' that they are making more money.

      Why is it 'only fair'..?

      • it's not more fair to tax the rich.

        Often you see people who ask for such policies are those who would not be affected by this policies. Of course it's good to get somebody else to pay up to solve problems in society.

        If the policies were to be fair, levy a flat fee to pay for XYZ. let's see how much they actually care about fixing the problems in society, when it actually costs them.

      • i work in a factory as a casual through agency $27.21 getting ft hours per week and ot available but without the ft employee benefits/entitlements…27.21*38=$1034 x52wks = $53k this is excluding OT work which can push me upto 65k+…. ive been offered a ft perm role and they want to push me down to adault award rate which is $21 x38hrs = $798 x52wks = $42k thats like a 10-18k difference for me if i accepted the ft contract to be on the factorys payroll with the benefits/entitlements job security…friends telling me should take the ft offer just for job security in this current economy pandemic

        • That's a huge difference mate. I'm not sure how it all works but its strange that they would even need to lower your pay by that much. As I understand it, even if they match the rate you're getting through the agency, they'd still be saving 20-30%.

          A couple of years ago, I had some mates work for an employer through an agency and was getting paid ~$30/hr, after they finished the contract with that employer, they found out the agency was charging the employer ~$38/hr.

          Though I suppose FT comes with a lot more liability for the employer so that might be why they can't offer you the same rate? I would try to negotiate for a rate that is more 'fair' for you but man good luck, its tough out there in the current climate.

        • Yeah it's savage but the cash is probably staying about the same, with you now getting leave and superannuation.

          Would you still get access to overtime if taken on as a full time worker?

          • @AlanHB: yeh the problem here is if i dont take the first offer, when there is a next FT offer to other candidates that they train to do my job, my hours will be lessen as they will prefer to have the new FT worker working at award adult rate then pay me who are on the higher casual rate…ive seen people in my workplace quit once on FT couldnt adjust to the lower pay (having to work extra day SAT or OT to make up the loss income difference from previous casual) or have their shifts/hours decrease to the point you are not rostered anymore and just quit….or they push you to go do harder tasks to make you quit

        • But you'll get something like 4 weeks paid annual leave per year, sick pay etc.
          If you get sick now, I assume you don't get paid?
          If you take the 4 weeks AL per year, that's nearly $3200 in your pocket for not going to work.

    • top bracket at present is 45%. another 25% more makes it 70%. which begs the question, if you were told you earned 30c in the dollar, would you work those extra hours/take on roles with more responsibility/undertake further training to be more productive? we already have a progressive tax system, sometimes more than others depending on which way the political pendulum is swinging.

  • +2

    I'm a government lawyer with just over 10 years experience. My current wage lies in the $120k-$150k bracket.

  • +1

    Mining (Perth based, not FIFO)
    Even time roster
    10-15 years experience
    120-150k.
    10% bonus, 15% super, employee share scheme

    Definitely made more in the boom times doing longer FIFO rosters but working 6 months of the year (still averages out to 42hour weeks, just longer days) and getting to go home every day is worth the pay cut to me.

    • That's good mate, wish I was around during the boom. Dreaming of Better days ahead. Looking to get into mining myself, i have finished uni. Northern WA seems to be the way for a newbee like me. Trying to move from NSW to WA. Any tips on what spot for newbee like me to anchor down and learn some real work. Thanks

      • +1

        What did you do at uni? Are you looking to use those skills or career change?

        You'll have a much better chance of getting a foot in the door with a residential role than FIFO with no experience but living remote obviously isn't for everyone. That said, if you have an end goal of setting yourself up, getting experience and then going FIFO or whatever it may be, there's definitely a lot of opportunity around.

        • I studied mining engineering at Uni. Not a lot of opportunities in NSW at the moment.

          Yes you're definitely right, a residential role is the realistic way to go since i dont have the experience. Being single I'm willing to leave remotely and learn, I'm not attached to NSW everything is overated and over priced here especially housing(small mining town aren't the cheapest but atleast I'll be making some career progress). Whether its in FIFO, DIDO or leaving in a small region town doesn't really matter to me, the main goal is to get a career(make a middle-class income and stop working retail and odd jobs lol).

          Thank you so much, I'll look and put more energy into getting residential roles.

  • +1

    Came here to see the poll for " do you ride around in a lambo?" As a lambo owner I can tell you riding around in one definitely doesn't have a correlation to high taxable income. My son often rides to work - washing dishes for $12.50 an hour - in a lambo.

  • +2

    i dont see how someone who earns 180K + would even notice this post. i run my own business and my net is 120-180 and the only time i have time for myself is after a cup off coffee on Sunday morning, and If im lucky enough to even remember this website as much as i did before ….

    • +3

      You'd be surprised. I and others might enjoy taking their headspace to OZB away from work. Sure M-F I might be running a budget of 8m for IT . But doesnt hurt to scratch that bargain hunter inside of me for that $10 saving… 😄

      But you're right about your own business which is hands on and intense. I remember doing 70-80 HR weeks when running my own business and little time to OZB.

      • ^ this. Ozbargain is spacing out time, gets the brain off of the things that won't let me sleep

    • -1

      That’s why a lot of the time being a wage slave is a way better choice. You should be taking home at least $300k per year to even bother.

    • I'm on 200K+ in IT and I have plenty of free time.

    • +1

      Oh sorry, honesty isnt required. Just lie

  • I have been a secondary school teacher for 17 years and I barely earn six figure…

    • Just curious. Do teacher still do normal hours during term break, or just flexible and work from home? thanks

      • For government school teachers, we don't have to work at set hours during the school holidays but I normally spend the first week away from work and spend the next week doing preparation a few hours each day or spend few entire days leading up to the commencement of the new term.

        • This means you get ~ 8-10 weeks off a year. Not bad being a teacher

          • @kfcfatfat: Trying to teach a group of 25 year 8 and 9 students who don't want to be there and dealing with behaviour issues?

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