there are additional benefits to taking your leave at half pay in that, cash in hand wise, you tend to get more over the longer period as your tax liability is lower for those smaller pay amounts... i've taken rec leave at half pay and gotten well over half my normal pay in the bank...
personally, i think taking your leave at half pay would be, from a budgetary perspective, a lot wiser if you're planning on having at least six months off - FTB isn't a whole lot of money, your mat leave payments will be taken into account and impact your FTB anyway, so having a higher amount in your pocket for a longer period of time would be more beneficial
thats exactly the kind of advice I was after thanks!
I was gonna leave any FTB benefits we may or may not be entitled to til the end of the tax year anyway cause doubt we would qualify for much so if we get a little lump sum at the end even better.
I think the stability of the half pay would also be good for us too cause least there is always SOMETHING coming in rather than nothing, and if they let me take the baby bonus in installments then our weekly input would be manageable.
everyone is eligible to get the baby bonus in installments - and with how far along in your pregnancy you are at the moment, you'll have no choice! from january 1, all baby bonus recipients will be paid in installments of approx $385 a fortnight for 6 months. one thing to keep in mind though is that it IS dependent on yours and your partners income in the six months immediately after bubs is born - if it's more than 75k, you won't get the baby bonus (just not sure what "quite well paid" meant, so thought i'd drop that in there for you!)
ooh had a mild panic cause combined we get more than $75k a year, but then realised its $75k in 6 months which we certainly won't get. I get $54k and dh $52k so for what we do its quite good money. So we will be under $150k per year cut off
PHEW! Whilst I won't be buying goods with the bonus it is helping me with Mat leave
I agree with BG - last time I took half pay and it worked out a lot better from a tax perspective and it stretched the money out over 2 financial years so it worked better froman FTB perspective as well. Not to mention the budgeting was made easier by having money coming in for longer.
I am planning to take all my 7 weeks A/L at half pay to stretch my time out too - I work in a private bussiness so no paid matt leave for me! Taking 1/2 pay actallu makes me come out $50 bucks a week better off dues to paying less tax.
Briggsys Girl - where did you find out all that info about the Baby Bonus?? I have been looking for info but all I get is gov'mnt sites that I dont understand fully! Is it after Jan 2009 that you get installments? My due date is Nov 30th so would I qulaify to get it in a lump sum? And if my husbands amdn my wages combined are approx $100K would we qualify to the bonus at all?
Sorry - new to this whole baby bonus thing!
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