Therefore, wouldn’t a lot of that money go back to the government anyway? And with the increase in pokies takings, how many jobs did this create? I wonder if the worker emptying the pokie machine now needed someone to hold her hand while she unloaded the $20 and $50 notes from the machines?

I am in no way saying that everyone that got the 2008 Christmas bonus was a gambler and put the money straight into the pokies. Some people actually needed the money and spent it on Christmas presents for their kids, bills, and so on.

What did you truthfully do with your christmas bonus?

Allot of my friends bought a big screen TV with it. However if they were asked if they actually needed the money before it was handed to them, they most likely would have said no.

And no I have not heard of any other christmas bonuses coming for christmas 2009.  Sorry guys..

• computers and laptops and the expense in repairing them and updating them;
• software to run on the computers – this includes word, excel, power point, adobe and virus protection;
• devices used for the computer – USB keys, DVDs, CDs, external hard drives – to save information on and do backups;
• internet connection, including the setup costs (modem) – this is usually on a pro-rata basis.  For example it may be 50 for home and 50 for school.  To can work out the amount by hours on the computer for each person or perhaps by the bytes used to download the different information.
• school textbooks (hire or purchase), stationery (pencils, pens, folders, ruler, stapler, nikko pens, scissors, glue, rubber bands, display books, art books, etc), writing books and any other book you have purchased for your child to use at school.
• Tools of trade – this could be tools purchased by your child if they are doing a school based apprenticeship and needed a hammer or likewise.

It is important to note that if you are claiming the expense on your tax return or you have been reimbursed for it by other means (government grant) you cannot claim it on this Educational Tax Refund (ETR).  So you should decide which is the better means of claiming it – through your tax (usually 20-30% refunded) or through the ETR (50% refunded).

Unfortunately you cannot claim the following:

• school fees – including subject levies (for example the $10 you may have to pay for home economics);
• school uniforms;
• school excursions;
• sporting equipment;
• music instruments;
• tutoring;
• library book fees (including late/lost fees and the fee to bring them into the library);
• bus fares;
• donations and building levies (but these can be tax deductible on your income tax return);
• school photos;
• any membership fees (these may also be a tax deduction on your income tax return).

Make sure when you are collecting your receipts that they are dated from 01 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, and if possible don’t forget any as the tax office won’t allow you to claim forgotten receipts later (even though you can rollover money you spent above the limit – $750 for primary & $1,500 for high school)

• the Family Tax Benefit Part A was received by you for your children that are attending school (primary and secondary only, not tertiary). Basically if you and your partner are receiving under $100,000 combined income you are entitled to Family Tax Benefit Part A;
• you are caring for the child/ren for more than 35% of the time (that’s 4.2 months or 128 days a year);
• you stopped receiving FTB Part A because your child left school and earned too much money; or
• you were an independent student under 25 years old (which means you were probably on Austudy and had no other jobs).

Just remember that if your child only attended for one day of the year you are entitled to a full 6 months of rebate.

For example:

Lisa finished Grade 12 at the end of 2008 and started Uni in 2009.  She is entitled to receive 184 days of the rebate as she was at secondary school for the period (01 July 2008 to 31 December 2008).

Charlotte started Prep in 2009.  Her mother is entitled to 181 days of the rebate (01 January 2009 to 30 June 2009).

It would be good to point out that if you have a student that is going into Uni next year that they purchase any laptops, etc they will need for uni in the period July to December 2009.  That way they can claim the ETR for their secondary studies!!  Providing they do not earn over $12,287 for the year.

Like the Insulation Rebate you can get up to $1,600 to have one installed.  My father-in-law had his solar hot water system installed for only $1,400 and he didn’t even know about the rebate!!  My gas bottles cost me $105 and I have to buy one every quarter – so that is $420 a year, providing the price doesn’t go up again.  So even if I didn’t get the rebate I would have paid for the system in just over 3 years!

Below is the link for the solar hot water grant.

Form to complete

Quoted from the Government website:

“When can I apply for a rebate?

The rebate is offered from 3 February 2009 until 30 June 2012, subject to the availability of funds, for solar or heat pump hot water systems installed from 3 February 2009. No applications will be accepted after 30 June 2012. Applicants must apply for the rebate within six months of their new solar or heat pump hot water system being installed.

What is the deadline for applications?

Applicants must apply for the rebate within six months (184 days) of installing an eligible system.

Who can apply for the rebate?

Applicants for the rebate must be the owner or tenant of the dwelling where the system was installed. The application process is simple and straightforward and is completed at the time the new hot water system is being installed. Suppliers and installers of solar or heat pump hot water systems cannot apply for the Australian Government’s Solar Hot Water Rebate on behalf of their customers.

Government agencies or occupants of public housing are not eligible for this rebate.

Can I apply for the rebate if I am renting?

Yes. The system for which a rebate is being claimed must be installed at a principal place of residence. An applicant can be the owner or the tenant of the dwelling.

A tenant should not install a system without approval from the owner of the dwelling. The sharing of any costs is a matter for the landlord and the tenant to negotiate.

Regardless of whether you are an owner or a tenant, all other eligibility requirements must be met.

Can I get the rebate for a system I install on my investment property?

Yes. The system for which a rebate is being claimed must be installed at a principal place of residence. This can be an investment property which must be the tenant’s principal place of residence. It cannot be a holiday home. An owner may apply for a rebate on more than one property. A separate application must be submitted for each property.

The sharing of any costs is a matter for the landlord and the tenant to negotiate.

Regardless of whether you are an owner or a tenant, all other eligibility requirements must be met.

The Solar Hot Water Rebate provides rebates for solar and heat pump hot water systems that replace an existing electric storage hot water system. In order to be eligible for the rebate the solar or heat pump system must be a new and complete hot water system that is eligible for at least 20 RECs.

RECs are assigned by the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator as part of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme and reflect the deemed value of equivalent renewable energy generation over a ten year period.”

Register

There are some conditions though - a person living in their house will get the full rebate of $1,600 but if you are renting the house out (ie you are a landlord) or you have a holiday home (don’t we all wish!!)  you can get $1,000 rebate.

I suggest you ring your local insulation installer to ask for more details. Either way it is a great gift for all of us, oh yeah, and the enviroment.

Follow this link for more information http://www.environment.gov.au/energyefficiency/insulation/index.html

A few funny stories that people have told me when getting the insulation installed:

• One lady had a guy come to the house that had a big whole in his shorts at the back and nothing underneath. The lady spent the whole hour trying to avoid looking at this guys behind. “He was a nice looking fella” she said when she was trying to explain the situation to her husband.
• Another lady had the guys turn up to install the insulation and she already had a roof full. She never bothered to even check before she booked them to do it.

Obviously the first thing you must do if you want to claim expenses with the education tax rebate is to keep receipts of all your eligible purchases. Then at tax time, parents can simply claim the refund when they complete their 2008-09 income tax return.

Here is screenshot from a tax return for individuals for 2009. The education tax refund section will be located under the heading of tax offsets. After you have calculated your claim amount you can enter it into the L section shown below.

You can download a copy of this form from the Australian tax department. Tax return for individuals 2009

What time period can you claim for?

You can start keeping receipts for eligible incurred expenses from July 1st 2008.

What form do I fill out to claim to education tax rebate when I am not lodging a tax return

You can still claim the education tax refund even though you are not going to lodge a tax return.  Of course as long as you are eligible for this refund, you simply fill out a form and either send it to the ATO or drop it into one of their shop fronts.

Download the ETR claim form

How do you calculate your education tax refund?

Well this is something that everyone wants to know. It may look easy from the outset, but believe me it can get very difficult.  I found this Education Tax Refund calculator on the ATO website. You would think that working out 50% of something was easy, but in this case its not. For example what if your child was in primary school in 2008 and secondary school in 2009? You would have to do two separate calculations by splitting the amount of days spent at each school.

E-tax online

If you use E-tax to do your tax return online it is so easy to fill in the education tax refund section. You will not have to calculate anything at all. You just fill in the details required, which is not much at all, and then it will be calculated for you. It even calculates what amount you can rollover to the next year. I was shocked at how easy it was.

Who is eligible for this education tax refund?

• If you care for a child that attends either primary or secondary school.
• If you receive FTB (family tax benefit) part A.

Here are some more links with detailed information.

http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au/am-i-eligible/

www.familyassist.gov.au

What can you claim on the education tax refund?

• laptop computers and home computers
• computer-related equipment such as printers, USB flash drives, as well as disability aids to assist in the use of computer equipment for students with special needs
• computer repairs
• home internet connections
• computer software for educational use
• school textbooks and other printed learning material, including prescribed textbooks, associated learning materials, study guides and stationery, and
• prescribed trade tools for secondary school trade courses.

More information below..

http://www.educationtaxrefund.gov.au/what-can-i-claim/#EligibleEducationExpense

School uniforms are not included.

Examples of what you can buy to get up to 50% back on the education tax refund:

• You can buy your child a laptop or a desktop computer.
• You can buy a printer, usb stick, printer paper, printer ink.
• Prescribe school books.
• Educational software.

What can you claim for a primary school student?

You can claim up to $375 for a primary school student.

What can you claim for a secondary school student?

You can claim up to $750 for a secondary school student…Therefore in order to claim up to $750 you will need at least $1500 worth of buying receipts.

Make sure you keep all of your educational reciepts. Even if you replace a pencil case, rubbers, books, keep them all…

There was already a first home owners grant (FHOG) in place which is a $7,000.00 grant for eligable first home buyers.

What is the First home owners boost?

• an extra $7 000 to first home buyers who purchase an established home; and
• an extra $14 000 to first home buyers who build a new home or purchase a newly constructed home.

First home buyers will be eligible for the Boost on contracts entered into between 14 October 2008 to 30 June 2009 (inclusive).

This means the FHOG is now $14,000.00 and but if you purchase a newly constructed home you will get $21,000.00.

Should first home buyers buy a house now or wait for the budget?

I was watching Sunrise with Mel & Koshie this morning and they were interviewing Kevin Rudd’s federal leader of government business Anthony Albanese. The government will not confirm if the first home buyers grant is going to be continuing or not. At the moment the first home owners grant is available Until June 30. This raises the question: Should first home buyers rush out and buy a house now or wait for the budget and risk missing out altogether?

Buying your first home is no doubt a hard decision to make, with new uncertainties arising every day. Considering that it has been confirmed by a number of souces that Australia is facing a recession, how  could they put this kind of pressure on the first home buyers. Its like saying “buy now or miss out!”.

Watch the full interview http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1341467&cl=13132107&src=y7lifestyle&ch=

To qualify applicants must:

• Be the homeowner or mortgagee of the house (or townhouse / villa / retirement villa) in which they reside, no rentals or apartments.
• Have approximately 5.4m (along the gutter) x 1.5m (up to ridge line) of unshaded rooftop space available that is facing as close as possible to North (NE or NW ok). Clear capping and edges by 200mm.
• Have a combined household taxable income below $100, 000 pa.
• Live within South East Queensland (from Coolangatta to Toowoomba to Bundaberg, including all of SE Queensland) 
• Be connected to the mains electricity grid and have an electricity account.
• Be the rate payer for the address at which they reside.
• Sign the $8000 Federal Government Rebate and the RECs to Free Solar Pty Ltd.
• Have a metal or tiled roof, no asbestos or fibro roofs please.
• Fill out the online “Register now” form on this website.
• Pay the fully refundable $1499 deposit to Free Solar.

This information was gathered from the http://freesolar.com.au website, however when I revisited the site today it has a notice saying that applications have closed for this month. I am hoping they re-open it soon because I have told so many people about this.

How could you not go for this…You pay a deposit of $1499 and you get it back when the grant has been paid to the company. After that you own the entire solar power unit that will save you big dollars on your household expenses…

This sounds great, however now he is encouraging everyone to go out and spend it all on xmas. Apparantly this may keep our economy afloat if this money is injected back into the system, keeping jobs secure and businesses booming as usual at christmas time. But is spending this bonus going to help the actual individual people in the long run. What happens when the money runs out and the bills start pilling up.

It makes me wonder if this is good advice coming from Kevin Rudd, the suposed leader of this country. Isn’t it better to save the money for what could happen in the future?