The not so well laid plans of my mother and myself.
Alt: Bilking the Australian Taxation Office often doesn't work to your benefit.
Not mine.
My mum was a smart lady - she was a pilot instructor, teacher, worked in IT from the 50's including heading many dept. in her time and got her beloved PhD (something about using the Internet as a teaching tool) 6 months before she died - having spent almost half her life in academia.

She was also (like myself) as tight as a nun's nasty when it came to money.
She owned everything she had (including a nice house in a very affluent suburb and a fancy sportscar), earnt a tidy sum and had large amounts of money squirreled away in various trust and off-shore accounts aside from her "official" superannuation.

Despite the fact that she had all these means & assets she somehow manged to wrangle herself a govt. pension and pension card (which are apparently both means & asset tested). Did I mention she had comprehensive private health insurance despite qualifying for the full Medicare rebate?

It was only after the probate from her (very carefully & expensively crafted) Will came thru that I discovered most of these things.
Having had to live on the unfriendly side of welfare I can only say - in no way did I condone, agree with or accept how my mum conducted her finances and what a self-serving bitch.
My newly-found financial advisor, mum's lawyer and my accountant all said pretty much the same thing - I could continue her method of dodging paying towards the public purse or I could cough up and pay the ferry-man. If I didn't pay up I would only be prolonging the inevitable and a with a lot of interest.
So eventually the ATO sent me a "pay up or else" letter to cover my mum's estates tax debt.
I got a bank cheque for AUD$26000 odd and took it into the head office of the ATO to pay it.
Trust me. Nothing & I mean nothing is more annoying, demeaning, frustrating or "financially soul-destroying" than having to pay the taxman like that. Absolutely nothing.

I have have always paid my taxes (even when we had welfare payments), I hate the idea of taxes even tho I understand the need for them. But to have to cover someone elses tax dodges really fucking sucked. Big time.

Moral of the story: if you're going to leave them anything, don't leave your kids a tax debt.
And yes this probably was a 1st world problem - if someone could've found me a recipe to avoid it last week I would've been happier.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Sat 7 Jul 2012, 8:51, 7 replies)

But you weren't covering someone else's tax dodges
That payment came from your Mother's estate, not from your own pocket.

(Of course you, and your fellow taxpayers had been covering her unpaid share all the while - THAT is what should irk you)
( Ghoti Fingers, Sat 7 Jul 2012, 9:09, closed)

Um...
Since she was dead and I was the sole beneficiary of the will.
It was my money. & yes you're right - she bilked the system and got away with it while I chose to take on the the responsibility for the tax debt rather than passing it on.
Pretty much my point from the beginning.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Sat 7 Jul 2012, 12:13, closed)

Why are you whining about paying $26,000
when you presumably inherited a lot more?
(ubergeekian, Sun 8 Jul 2012, 23:26, closed)

See you happily pay someone elses tax debt of that amount then.

(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Mon 9 Jul 2012, 7:14, closed)

I think you mean 'Me and Mum'.

( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Sat 7 Jul 2012, 22:05, closed)

Close. It should be Mum and me.
The person speaking should come last.
( SteamedCleaner, Sun 8 Jul 2012, 5:03, closed)

Like that movie
"Withnail and Me"?
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Sun 8 Jul 2012, 5:44, closed)

So...
...you inherited a nice house in a very affluent suburb and a fancy sportscar, large amounts of money squirreled away in various trust and off-shore accounts and you only had to pay AUD $26000?
(SillyMoo, Mon 9 Jul 2012, 11:38, closed)

Yes.
But that wasn't my tax burden - I've paid and will continue to do so (you get taxed on interest) my own tax burden for what I inherited.
Again - having to pay someone elses tax debt really fucking sucked.
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Mon 9 Jul 2012, 13:04, closed)

I don't see how
Your complaint seems to be that she was tax dodging, and as a result you had to pay the tax out of her estate. But if she'd paid it when she was alive, the estate would have been $26K less anyway - possibly a lot more.

I'm really not seeing how you're any worse off paying her tax out of her estate, than you would have been if she'd paid her tax out of her money when she was alive.
(bblgoose, Mon 9 Jul 2012, 17:30, closed)