Giving Something Back
I’ve just come inside from the Australia Day fundraising concert I’m holding in the backyard for my new charity - The ATO Can’t Tsu (na) Me Charity. The (na) fragment is meant to be silent, thus making it a joke suggesting the Australian Tax Office can’t sue me. I’m not sure it requires this much explanation. Still, as it was suggested by the work experience kid I don’t have to pay royalties. Nor, for that matter do I have to pay workers compensation for the tongue lashing I gave him regarding his lacklustre desktop publishing skills. Bless the Liberal Government’s Industrial Relation reforms.
The Charity (as it shall be known from this point forwards) aims to, through "pecuniary donations" (i.e. cash), provide donors with charitable tax advice. Such advice shall help them reduce their overall taxable income, claim adopted Tsunami victims as dependants for calculating family assistance payments, and deduct the donation of funds to charities, including donations to The Charity. In other words, The Charity’s services are government funded, thus the need to procure additional funds by holding fundraising concerts in my backyard.
I simply have the urge to give back to the community after it has been so good to me. The giving spirit of Australian’s over the past month has been extraordinary. Children donating their pocket money, grandparent’s donating their gambling money: I see this and think "they won’t get under the tax-free threshold that way".
The work isn’t easy though. The Charity is consuming most of my time, as well as my personal funds. Actually, for the purpose of legalities I must rephrase that: I am being extremely benevolent towards The Charity by channelling all of my personal funds directly to it, at which point I am then in need of tax-free charity.
The fundraising concert is going very well. Mrs Gail managed to get Celine Dion, John Farnham, Tom Jones and The Spazzys to play, before I took removed the offending mix CD from the stereo and managed to donate the CD to the earth from whence it came.
Luckily we all moved on. The wine and West Coast coolers continued to flow freely, so I must get back to the party post-haste. But let me leave you with this charitable message - it’s not what you give, it’s what you get back from the Government at the end of the financial year for giving.
Happy Australia Day.
The Charity (as it shall be known from this point forwards) aims to, through "pecuniary donations" (i.e. cash), provide donors with charitable tax advice. Such advice shall help them reduce their overall taxable income, claim adopted Tsunami victims as dependants for calculating family assistance payments, and deduct the donation of funds to charities, including donations to The Charity. In other words, The Charity’s services are government funded, thus the need to procure additional funds by holding fundraising concerts in my backyard.
I simply have the urge to give back to the community after it has been so good to me. The giving spirit of Australian’s over the past month has been extraordinary. Children donating their pocket money, grandparent’s donating their gambling money: I see this and think "they won’t get under the tax-free threshold that way".
The work isn’t easy though. The Charity is consuming most of my time, as well as my personal funds. Actually, for the purpose of legalities I must rephrase that: I am being extremely benevolent towards The Charity by channelling all of my personal funds directly to it, at which point I am then in need of tax-free charity.
The fundraising concert is going very well. Mrs Gail managed to get Celine Dion, John Farnham, Tom Jones and The Spazzys to play, before I took removed the offending mix CD from the stereo and managed to donate the CD to the earth from whence it came.
Luckily we all moved on. The wine and West Coast coolers continued to flow freely, so I must get back to the party post-haste. But let me leave you with this charitable message - it’s not what you give, it’s what you get back from the Government at the end of the financial year for giving.
Happy Australia Day.