Wednesday 22 April 2009

Paying Stupid Tax

Here’s a quick guide on how to spend heaps of money unnecessarily, it’s easy if you try.

  1. Don’t keep your passport and birth certificate in a secure, easy to remember location.
  2. Move house over a year ago & don’t unpack all your clutter from the boxes in the spare room
  3. Realise you’re going overseas in under 4 weeks and try to locate your passport.
  4. Turn your entire apartment upside down with no luck.
  5. Realise you can’t find your birth certificate to apply for a new passport.
  6. Apply for a new copy of your birth certificate, which requires working from home so you can go into the NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages in person, and get a same day certificate processed. Stupid tax of $63, the cost of an urgent issue of certificate as I needn't have paid this at all if I had put it somewhere safe. Oh and don’t forget the Stupid tax of $13 for parking in the city.
  7. Book in appointment at Post Office for passport interview.
  8. Complete passport application, including getting new passport photos Stupid tax of $9 as my existing passport still has two and half years on it.
  9. Submit passport application. Stupid tax of $208 for the passport itself, and Stupid tax of $78 for priority processing (sent out within two business days + mailing time).
  10. Berate yourself for days on end for being so careless = priceless.

Total Stupid Tax: A$371, or approx 178 GBP.

I've taken the money out of my Trip fund. It’s not an emergency; it’s my own stuff up. Grrrr.

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