Baby bonus??

[Beautiful Disaster]

Ok now I'm more confused.

[briggsy's girl]

oh no!
i'll do a post tonight (someone remind me) which i'll try and explain it all a bit clearer
DH has just had 3m of soil dropped on the front lawn and it all needs to be moved to the very back of the back yard before the end of the day so i has to work now!

[bubbles81]

Someone told me the baby bonus is going to increase to $10,000 instead of $5000? Is it true?

[Ahurani]

A whaaaaat.

[Ahurani]

The fao website says $5294

[catetay]

The PPL adds up to $10,000, so double the Baby Bonus at $5000. But you can only get one or the other. Hmmmm, pity they don't value SAHMs as much as working ones isn't it? Guess they figure we only stay at home coz our partners earn big bucks.
sorry, missed the whole page of explanations on that one !

[briggsy's girl]

nah, the ppl isn't as great as it's made out to be. honest! i work, and i'm better off with baby bonus! it was a step in the right direction to catch Australia up to the other countries, but a pretty pathetic and ill thought out step!

[Cherished]

Someone told me the baby bonus is going to increase to $10,000 instead of $5000? Is it true?

The paid maternity leave is about $10000 I think where as the baby bonus is around $5000

BG you are always so helpful with these type of questions

[briggsy's girl]

am I reading this right - you can claim the baby bonus before the bubba is actually born??

When can I claim the Baby Bonus?

You can claim the Baby Bonus (and other payments such as Family Tax Benefit and Parental Leave Pay) up to three months before the birth of a child or an adopted child entering your care as part of the adoption process.

Your claim must be lodged no later than 52 weeks from the day after the child's birth or, in the case of adoption, no later than 52 weeks from the day after the adopted child comes into the adopting parent's care. "


has anyone done this? man it would be so much easier to do all the paper work now, rather then after bubba is born.

if you already have other children you are claiming ftb for, there is no point to this for baby bonus. you still have to fill in the exact same form. if you are claiming paid parental leave, or this is your first child, the advance claim is worth doing. basically it will be processed and if there is any additional info needed, you will be sent a letter asking for it before the baby is born so you're not chasing your tail afterwards.

You can lodge the initial paperwork up to three months ahead...you still have to lodg the proof of birth paperwork with the official stamp etc from the hospital after the birth for obvious reasons...it won't be finalised until the second lot of paperwork is lodged but if you want to start the process early it can't hurt

yup, you will still need to lodge the proof of birth paperwork from the hospital. it's aboutt six or 10 pages. if you are already claiming ftb for another child, this is all you need to do, so the advance claim is pointless. it will still take about 3 weeks from when you lodge that paperwork. if it is a first child or you're not actively claiming ftb for other children, then yes, the pre-claim is a great idea. or if you're claiming the paid parental leave as there is a lot of extra paper work for that one (due to it being paid, in most cases, through your employer)

The paid maternity leave is about $10000 I think where as the baby bonus is around $5000

BG you are always so helpful with these type of questions

nawwww, glad i can help

the PPL is about 12k i think, so a bit over the 10k mark, may even be more - but it is taxable. it increases your tax bracket in most cases, and is classed as income for ftb purposes. PLEASE, if you're going to claim, check the PPL/BBY bonus estimator on c'link/FAO websites to make sure you will be better off with PPL (i know DH and I won't be)

BBY is currently 407.23 per fortnight for 13 fortnights - i believe this comes up to the 5294 previously mentioned. this one is tax free and doesn't count as income for ftb purposes.