Traveling

I’ve been quite busy lately, and I’m going to be reasonably busy from now on. With traveling, that is.

11 days before the end of the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) year (which ends 31st March) I discovered I had misinterpreted the FBT requirements for driving my car. I thought that I could do 25,000 per year of ownership, and since I had done more than 25,000km in my first year, then the extra km’s would mean I could just make up the difference in the next year. Eg. if I did 30,000km in the first year, then I could do 20,000km in the second year.

Nuh uh, it was explained to me… it doesn’t work like that. I’m supposed to do 25,000km per year, regardless of how many I did the previous year.

I thought I needed about 43,000km on the clock (based on a pro-ratered amount for the year before, since I’d only had it 9 months by the end of FBT year 2008) and I was happy to see I had 48,000km which made me think I was well over my requirements. However, upon learning the harsh facts of tax reality, I had to do 2,000km worth of travel within 11 days in order to make up my minimum requirement. If I didn’t, I’d drop into the next FBT category which would mean I’d need to pay $4,000 to make up the difference.

So I did a lot of driving. 🙂

I drove randomly around Canberra each day. I drove to Sydney for lunch with friends on the Saturday and was back by dinner (going through Wollongong on the way back), then I drove to the coast for lunch on Sunday with another friend.

I was very happy to have done 200km more than my minimum requirement by midnight on March 31st. Woohooo! I saved myself $4,000…

Isn’t it funny in today’s world, with such importance on ‘saving the environment’, that the government continues to maintain archaic taxation laws where the more you drive a car you’re leasing, the less money you pay in tax.

Anyway… I’ll be doing a lot more traveling in future, with day trips here and there around NSW and maybe even small trips to Victoria. For the drive, and to take photos along the way. I’m looking forward to it.

Also, I’m reconsidering my Great Aussie Adventure. Instead of spending 40 days to go around the country side, I might instead do it in much shorter periods of time.

I’m thinking that I should pick the most interesting points I wanted to see along the adventure, and then make each of those points the subject of its own holiday. I’ll see how that might work out and consider my options.

I went on a car cruise yesterday with the XR6 & FPV Car Club. It was my 2nd cruise with them since I got my car. It was good fun! You can see the photos here: