Pay Rise For Organiser - Murray Horton Earlier this year, the CAFCA/ABC Organiser Account, which exists solely to provide my income, hit a record low. It was crisis time. So, we put out a special appeal to all members of CAFCA and the Anti-Bases Campaign, plus our supporters. As reported in Watchdog 105 (April 2004), the response was magnificent. More than $10,000 was donated, with more promised; the number of regular pledgers has risen from less than 30 to more than 40, with more to come. Not only was it sufficient to increase my pay to the new minimum wage of $9 per hour, which came into effect in April, but the two groups decided that the account is now so healthy that, for the first time ever, I got a pay rise to more than the minimum wage (I now get $10 p.h. gross). For the first time, I am getting more than the hourly rate that I got in my last "real job" (as a Railways labourer – I was made redundant in 1991). In fact, I think this might be my highest hourly pay rate ever. For purely pragmatic reasons that we’ve explained before, the Organiser Account will be staying with the foreign-owned Westpac indefinitely. But the bulk of its money has now been put into an interest earning term deposit with NZ-owned, publicly-owned Kiwibank. But, I’m afraid, what the people giveth with one hand, the taxman taketh away with the other. I am self-employed and have always paid my tax retrospectively in one annual lump sum. In May my accountant gave me the cheery news that my income tax bill has doubled, at least for the next year. Why? Because I have crossed a fatal threshold in the amount of tax that I owe and now have to pay provisional tax (i.e. in advance, estimated on my previous earnings). In the first year of provisional tax, that means that I have to pay for the 2003/04 year, as usual, plus for 2004/05. Hence, double. It should return to normal after that but, for the next year, I will be basically working for Inland Revenue. So rest assured that your generous donations will not be spent on high living. If you’re superstitious, it’s worth knowing that this is my 13th year in the job. Once again, many thanks for your resounding vote of confidence in the work that I do, and in the two organisations for which I work. And keep those donations and pledges coming in. Non-Members:
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