The $10,000 Bill

As I sit here in my little home office trying to waste time until my ankle surgery today, I thought I might pop in here and say HI!

I am fasting so as you can imagine, I am not in the greatest of moods AND my surgery isn’t until about 3:30pm today. I had to start fasting at 7:30am so that is a huuuuuge gap between meals.

It is just a quick day surgery today to take out two pins from my ankle. Apparently the surgeon is going to leave the plates and screws in and ‘if I want’, they can be removed in about three years or so. I forget what I had for breakfast this morning so how on earth am I going to remember about the plates and screws in my ankle in three years time?

Anyhoo, onto the TAX MAN.

I am going to have a whinge and whine about this so if you are like me and like to be around only positive things, then stop reading.  But if you wonder how you would cope when unable to work and think you have it all sorted, then read on.

Sooooo, I pay for income insurance each month which covers me for such times as when I am unable to work due to illness.

Enter Breast Cancer.

This is a perfect reason to have income insurance because, it is very difficult to hold down a full time job while having treatment for cancer such as chemotherapy, mastectomy and radiation to name a few.

Another thing I have, and pay a lot of money for, is Private Health Insurance. This ensures I can get treatment very quickly, receive very good private health care and rebates (of sorts) for some treatments.

Therefore, I feel, I am a very small burden on the government.

I am not using the public hospitals, therefore freeing it up for people who are unable to afford Private Health Insurance.

Nor am I asking the government to fund me while I am not working with Sickness Benefits because my income insurance, whilst it doesn’t pay my full wage, assists me in getting by during this time.

So, I knew that the income insurance wasn’t having tax taken out of it while I was receiving 75% of my wage but given that was quite a reduction in payment, we found it very difficult to find the extra money to pay the tax. So, in my wisdom, I ‘assumed’ that the $4,800.00 tax payment made while working (which was due to be refunded to me because I had earnt under the threshold) would cover the tax cost of income insurance.

You can imagine my absolute disgust and disappointment when finding out that that my tax bill was just under ten thousand dollars.

This is the thanks I get for having Private Health Insurance and Income Insurance.

If I had chosen to take on sickness benefits (which I am completely entitled to do so) and used the public system, I would have had no tax bill, would have more than likely even received a tax return with $$ involved, be better off each fortnight not having to pay for income insurance or health insurance and become a burden on the public system and government.

It really pissed me off.

Yes, I am very thankful to have my life, to have come out the other side and yes, I know that $10,000 is a small price to pay but geez, when do I get a break here?

Oh thats right, I got a break on the 3rd of May, 2 breaks in fact. In my leg and ankle!

Thats it. Whinge complete.

It is now time to head down to the hospital for a lovely little sleep under an anesthetic, have some pins removed, hopefully be fed when I wake up and come home some time tonight.

There is a lovely photo of my boy, fresh from his shower because I didn’t have time to find any related photos to this post. Oh, I could have taken a photo of my empty bank account and purse!

🙂