Wednesday 1 May 2013

Coffee Bean Power gets up on 'Get UP'

Make your GST go Federal not Feral



As of this afternoon, Coffee Bean Power is an official 'Get Up' campaign action. I would really like this to go viral so that from the next GST quarterly BAS payments increase exponentially. Then our federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, will notice an increase in GST payments to government. My *GOLD* star today goes to Charlie Lovett whose receipt is legal, clear and binding. 
KAAA-CHING!
The GST, which I paid this arvo, AU$0.73 is going to Treasury and I feeeeeel good! NB I have covered the name of the cashier to maintain her/his privacy.

If you have had a pleasant experience like mine, email me your receipt and I will upload it! Taxpaying companies and businesses deserve some free advertising.



From a relative:
'Forget coffee. Sandwich bars in the city are the way to make a fortune.' 30 April


My Response:
Agreed but the sandwich bars also sell coffee and lots of other stuff. There is a greater mark up on coffee than any sandwich. However, most people in the city buy a coffee+ something else. So the 
GST is being collected by the shop owner who avoids paying tax on on the whole deal. Burwood is rife with small shopfront and street stall owners selling all sorts of imported junk: socks, tea towels and they don't know what a receipt is when I have asked them for one. Consequently, I haven't bought the product. Similarly, at a Leichhardt shopping plaza, an owner in a linen shop, when asked, wrote the amount on a tally sheet paper and then gave me a written receipt with no ABN. So these people are deliberately tallying the amounts for which they are accountable and are not paying tax on the 'rest', which is a much longer list. 
The deficit of $12billion is nothing. GST on coffee and a sandwich could easily cover the whole lot and leave just as much and more if the government empowered the ATO to have more direct collection. I'm hopping mad that the GST which I pay is not going where it should. Next thing will be Gonski to get a drubbing. 
No one offers a customer a coffee for $3.15 if you pay cash. The 35c is going into the pockets of these economic lowlifes. When I asked for a receipt in a Pitt St city cafe near Park St., the guy fiddled on the bench for a number of seconds and then gave me a receipt which was stamped an hour earlier than my purchase! He then followed me out of the shop and into the lift lobby!!!! Haven't been back there since! That is just one scam. I have examples of dud receipts for others as well: no ABN, handwritten and no ABN. 
People like us have to ask for a receipt if we want our paid tax to work for the country. Remember, if you are also leaving a tip, you are really pushing tax free money into their pockets. 




Tuesday 30 April 2013

Advice from Sippie Wallace



Have a coffee break! Ask for that receipt, Take 5 and some good advice from Sippie!




Sunday 28 April 2013

Coffee Bean Power



Turn 35 Aussie cents into hospitals, schools, roads, very fast trains, flood mitigation and new airports


AU$3.5 billion

Last week, I listened to a friend as he started to Whinge, with a capital 'W', about the Gillard Government. He suggested that 'something needed to change' and that Australia needed a 20% GST just like the VAT level in the UK. I replied that increasing the GST had not helped the UK recover from the 2008 GFC. He looked shocked.

I reminded him that a great deal of Australia's GST goes undisclosed. I suggested that if the coffee- drinking population of Australia asked for a receipt each time each Aussie and every tourist bought a coffee, coffee drinkers would have a better chance of seeing that the tax they have paid to the coffee maker goes into the nation's coffers. Remember in the UK, VAT includes fresh food, which Australia's GST does not.


So how many cups of coffee are consumed every day in Australia? How many receipts are issued for these coffees? The difference between coffee served and coffee tax declared is phenomenal. If you are happy to pay the tax but wonder why Australia's infrastructure is still behind other first world countries, make your coffee tax work for you. Each cup of coffee can add 35 cents to the Australian Treasury.

Every time you buy a coffee and add in a sandwich/cake/pizza/hamburger etc to the bill, take the time to ask for a receipt as you hand over the cash. Better still, charge your bill to your credit card. This simple ten second action is you putting your taxes to work. The shop owner cannot refuse to give you a receipt.

So how much coffee do Aussies drink per year? According to the link below about 1 billion per year outside our homes and of those 480 million are cappuccinos! What about the lattes, macchiatos and all the other variations, chocolates and teas?
http://www.howsafeisyourfood.com.au/articles/164-so-how-much-coffee-do-we-drink.html


1billion coffees x AU$3.50 = AU$3.5billion
Read the article below for some 2006 coffee drinking statistics
http://www.smh.com.au/news/good-living/coffee-by-numbers/2006/07/17/1152988455398.html

Why pay more tax like my friend suggests? 
Help the Australian government to collect all the GST on your cup of coffee. Just ask for a receipt!



Wednesday 1 February 2012

Catherine Meany

Catherine Meany born c1819 is possibly a distant relative of my maternal great, great grandfather James Meany of Cloontra West in Co Clare. James (b1838) and his large family arrived in Sydney, Australia as assisted migrants,  on 21 October 1878 aboard 'La Hogue'. With him were his wife Mary Crow/Crough Meany and their seven children: Mary (my great grandmother), Michael, James, Bridget, John, Catherine and Margaret.  


Mary Crow Meany

Mary Meany


and their seven children: Mary (my great grandmother), Michael, James, Bridget, John, Catherine and Margaret.  



Two years ago, I was involved in 'Roses from the Heart' a project initiated by Christine Henri in Tasmania. The continuing project aims to honour the 25560 female convicts transported from the UK and Ireland. I 'adopted' Catherine Meany as my research subject and made a bonnet for her. The bonnet is one of thousands which were displayed in the UK in 2010. If you would like more information about the project, the website is http://www.femalefactory.com.au/exhibit.htm
Hopefully, none of Catherine's bona fide relatives minds my contribution.




The Tasmanian archives show that Catherine Meany was born in Co Galway in 1824. However, this date varies from 1819-1824 depending on the document.  She was convicted of larceny in the Tipperary Court for stealing 15 shillings from a prosecutor, Thomas Brown. Her relatives at court were her father Andrew, brother John Martin and sister Biddy. Catherine was transported from Dublin to Hobart on 25 February 1847 on the "Arabian" see page 87 of the ship's convict passenger list:
 http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON41-1-12,156,87,L,80 


As convict 721, she was 'detained' for 7.5 years at the Female Factory at Cascades outside Hobart.  Catherine was granted a ticket of leave on 19 March 1849 to marry Joseph Goss at Kingston. They had one child, Andrew Cullicott Goss, born in 1850. Census records show that the Goss family later lived in Campbell Town, Tasmania. Andrew married Emily Eliza Porter b.1854. Their children were:
  • M. Goss b.1878
  • Emily Elizabeth Goss1879
  • Mary Louisa Goss b1883
  • Arthur Nicholas Goss b1885



I would be grateful if anyone could give me and info which may help me link all these pieces of the CM-puzzle with details of Catherine's birth: parents, place, dates etc. I am also interested in making contact with her Australian descendants to cross check our ancestry.


I would greatly appreciate any help.
Pauline