All Engines Go NEWS

sunhuntin · sunhuntin 12-01-2021, 04:21 PM out of the game

(11-30-2021, 02:03 PM)Mister No Wrote: There is no “yearly income tax” in my country, because you pay tax on every salary you receive and every other income you earn. Everything is taxed. Then, from the salary you additionally pay the obligatory pension and health insurance. That is automatically calculated before you get your pay, of course. In this way, the net salary is just over half of the gross salary. Through taxes and mandatory insurance contributions, the state thus gets about half of everything you earn. (Pensions, on the other hand, are about half the salary you received while working.) And, as I explained, of what you have left over from your salary, every time you buy any product or pay for any service, you pay extra every time 25% VAT, which is included in the price in advance, but the invoice shows how much you paid for the product or service, and how much VAT. There are also (rare) exceptions to which tax rates of 13% and 5% apply.

Avoiding taxation by not issuing an invoice (even for buying a newspaper at a kiosk) is punishable by law. This is often and thoroughly controlled.

Oh, I forgot to mention another interesting point regarding online ordering. When I order, for example, from Amazon.de the price I see includes German VAT (19%). Since the VAT in my country is much higher, the price I will pay will be automatically increased by the difference between the two amounts. This Amazon.de states below the price of each product: "Prices for items sold by Amazon include VAT. Depending on your delivery address, VAT may vary at Checkout."

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May I suggest that this money talk be moved to another (separate), more appropriate topic? I don't think it really has a place with cheerful Thomas & Friends characters, cartoons and models...

it is much the same here, though we are thankfully a little behind the 8-ball with charging GST on overseas online purchases. i believe it is starting to come in, but only on sites like amazon. ebay, jauce are still "safe".
we also have a very high customs rate, i think around $400NZD. i have only been pulled up once for potential additional charges, on a jauce shipment. i was able to prove the items were used and not for resale, so the fee got waived. anything under that amount generally gets ignored, though professional importers must have a different class within that.

currently, we have a national pension plan but it is optional for now. i only signed on 2 years ago, but it has been around for about 10 years, maybe longer. you can access the funds to buy your first home, but then it cant be touched until retirement which is currently 65. it is nearly impossible to get out of it once you are joined up.
it comes direct from our wages, and employers must also pay in a portion to every worker who is part of the scheme. employers pay a set amount, workers can select a percentage up to 10% and the goverment also pays in, with a bonus if a certain amount is paid in each year.
the same as you, we are taxed on what we earn and what we spend. cash under the table deals still happen regularly. my boss did just that a few weeks ago after getting new carpet. she paid a portion of the price via the tradesmans bank account, and the rest in the hand. saved them both a few bucks.

my amazon quote. this was for the gold party motorised trackmaster thomas.

ajtrain944 · ajtrain944 12-01-2021, 05:37 PM Collector or all!

My almost 4 year old son saw these and then saw the new episodes and said "dad these are weird I want to watch the other show"

Mister No · Mister No 12-07-2021, 08:44 PM AEG Cult Member

Some new pictures of AEG engines that we didn't have here (or so I think)...

Push Along Carly & Sandy

(Why is Carly nameless on the box?)

[Image: push-along-carly-box.jpg]