Our spending and GST

NSW Commerce Stage 5 85

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Introduction

Students learn that even if they are not working, they are taxpayers and pay tax on most goods and services they purchase. They keep a spending diary to work out how much GST they paid in the course of a week and how much their class collectively paid. They also consider what this means for businesses in terms of reporting and paying the money they collected in GST.

This activity contributes to the following outcomes.

A student:

  • applies consumer, financial, economic, business, legal, political and employment concepts and terminology in a variety of contexts COM5-1
  • analyses the rights and responsibilities of individuals in a range of consumer, financial, economic, business, legal, political and employment contexts COM5-2
  • works independently and collaboratively to meet individual and collective goals within specified timeframes COM5-9

Related Stage 4 outcomes: COM4-1, COM4-2, COM4-9

Related Life Skills outcomes: COMLS-5, COMLS-8, COMLS-13

Content descriptions

Core 3: Employment and Work Futures

Rights and responsibilities in the workplace

Students:

  • discuss employer responsibilities to workers and the government, for example superannuation, paid parental leave, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding, income tax, company tax or the Goods and Services Tax (GST) (ACHEK042)

Student learning resources

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Explainer

Goods and services tax

 
Template

Spending diary with GST

 
Calculator

GST calculator

Suggested activity sequence

This sequence is intended as a framework to be modified and adapted by teachers to suit the needs of a class group. If you assign this activity to a class, your students will be assigned all student resources on their 'My learning' page. You can also hand-pick the resources students are assigned by selecting individual resources when you add a work item to a class in 'My classes'.

Note: this activity can be introduced in the first lesson, but the majority of the lesson will take place one week later as students are required to keep a spending diary in this time period.

Part A: Spending diary

  1. Explain to students that they are all taxpayers, even if they do not have a job. Tell students that they pay tax on most of the goods and services they buy. This is known as the goods and services tax, or GST.
  2. As a class, read the explainer.
  3. Set students the spending diary challenge. Over the next week, you will keep a spending diary. Use the diary to record everything you spent money on – include everything such as mobile phone costs or top-ups, bus fees and snacks. Explain that the spending diary includes students identifying the amount of GST they paid if applicable.

Part B: Using information from students’ spending diaries

  1. At the end of the week, students add up their total spending and amount of GST they paid. They also list items that were GST-free. Refer students to the GST calculator.
  2. Invite each student to add their totals to the class tally sheet. Post a chart on the wall or record totals on the board.
      Goods and services with GST GST-free goods and services
    Student name (or number) Total spent GST paid Item name
  3. Add the total amount of money students in the class paid in GST over the course of the week.
  4. Invite student reflections on the amount of GST they paid as a class. Possible prompts include:
    • Were you surprised at how much tax we pay?
    • How do you think the government spends this tax revenue?
    • How do you feel about contributing to the provision of government services?
  5. Discuss the items listed under the GST-free column and discuss why these items are GST-free. Discuss the following:
    • What do these items have in common?
    • Are these items essential?
    • Is it fair that these items are GST-free? Why?

Part C: Businesses and GST

  • Explain to students that the money they pay in GST is collected by businesses and paid to the government through the ATO.
  • Usually businesses report and pay the GST they collected to the ATO quarterly.
  • Ask:
    • Imagine that all the items purchased by the class were purchased from one supplier. In simple terms, how much would this business pay in GST for this week?
    • What was the total price of goods before GST was added
Our spending and GST (PDF, 165.45 KB)

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