My husband and I have an agreement that I am the one who organises all the finances. We get paid on alternate weeks and I redistribute where everything goes. He doesn’t question any of my decisions around this and is complimentary as to how I organise it.
I also do our tax each year as well.
After I did this year’s tax I got a notice saying I had forgotten to put through my tax for the 2014 financial year. How I had forgotten this I don’t know - but I did. So as quickly as I could I went onto mygov and sorted it out. I hate these things hanging over my head. I also realised that year we cashed out some shares from my employer who matches them.
This week I got the notification back saying I owed a sum of around $5000. I feel sick. I’ve now organised a payment plan and it will be paid off by mid next year and I feel comfortable this will not have an impact on our family budget due to less costs next year relating to childcare as our youngest moves into school. My husband is from the UK so although he has been in Australia for 10 + years now he is still shocked at the amount of tax we pay. One year I stuffed up his tax and we had to pay back $2000 where I organised a payment plan for him and had it paid off quickly. He was fine about this and said this stuff needs to be paid back quickly anyway, you can’t avoid it.
I feel next year we need to be seeing a planner or someone who can help us with the levels of tax we pay. Each year we need to pay around $300 each after our return. I sometimes feel completely overwhelmed with this responsibility and I have told him it keeps me up at night.
I haven’t told him about this tax bill. I didn’t tell him I forgot to put the 2014 tax return through, I just thought I would process it and it would be done. I don’t want to tell him a few days before Xmas and I know if I do tell him he will be angry about the amount of tax we pay. We want to do some work to our home next year and we are debt free apart from our mortgage and this tax bill. I feel immense guilt when I speak to him every night after work at home.
I feel sick writing this! I just want to pay the damn thing off in instalments and have it done. Then when its paid I want to have a conversation with my husband around tax, shares and a financial plan for the future and him assisting me with the responsibility of this.
Can I just not tell him?
6 Replies
Tell him!
Just tell him, shit happens and things get forgotten. Increase the amount of tax you pay if you can for a short time until you find out if there's a way for you to lower your tax. I know what he means, I myself paid over $22K last financial year and got $300 of it back. Not that well paid either, we live comfortably but not extravagantly and still get smashed.
Can your hubby get a company car/phone/petrol card/private medical etc, in the lieu of a paycut, equivalent to what he'll gain in these things? My hubby chose this at his work and it's brilliant. So he has a work car, mobile paid for, petrol card, extras on private medical for the whole family and he gets what that is worth weekly deducted from his actual pay. Which means, we don't pay any tax on that money he's lost (these things we'd be paying for anyway), effectively getting more out of our dollar. My husband's work offered him this, as they claim it all back at tax time, too, so many places are more than happy for this trade off.
Get yourself a good accountant and work with them to take the pressure off you. You sound like you've done a wonderful job over the years keeping up with everything and the tax changes :/ It IS a very complicated job and your hubby is right when he whinges about our tax SYSTEM (not you). I'm sure a good accountant could get you back more of your PAYG tax. You and hubby go together and interview potential accountants and ask them if they have experience in your work industries - from experience it can make a huge difference to the deductions if they have other clients in the same industries as they get to know the tricks really well. Take hubby to all your accountant meetings and also involve him in getting the paperwork done through the year - even if it's just digging stuff out of files. My hubby really appreciates me doing the finances and when I make mistakes he always says he'd make more :) Sounds like hubby is more upset about the system here than you personally - you just see it as your fault - don't take his tanty so personally. I know I often sound like I'm shooting the messenger and have to remember to back off :) Don't feel guilty. We all make mistakes. Tell hubby - the sooner the better - a trouble shared is a trouble halved.
You have to tell him. We had a debt collector knock on our door one night for $5k my husband owed and never told me about. If I'd have known I could've sorted out a payment plan and it would've been fine. It was the fact he didn't tell me that hurt so much. I was furious.
You're in an emotional and also financial arrangement as a couple so you need to both be upfront and honest.
In terms of taxex go to an accountant. I never did and used to get about $400 back a year. This year for the first time I used one and got a return of almost $2k and the accountants fees were only $160!!! I will never be doing my taxes myself again. You're doing yourselves a disservice by not going to a tax accountant. And not someone like H & R Block they're crap. A proper local small business tax accountant.
Good luck. He'll be angry at first but will get over it and you won't have the guilty feeling in your gut for months to come.
Tell him. It may be worse if you hide it and he finds out later. It's not your fault that you didn't pay enough tax throughout the year. I would suggest getting a proper tax accountant to do your next return, and perhaps have them review the 2014 one to make sure no errors were made. Don't beat yourself up, this is not worth feeling sick over, especially if you have a plan to get out of the debt you are in. Tell your hubby.