Pay day!

Last week I received an email from my agent. It was completely out of the blue, and quite honeslty I wasn't expecting anything at the time. Attached to the email was a proof of payment into my back account, along with a spreadsheet, explaining how much money I had earned, how many hours of overtime I had worked. The percentage which my agent was taking and how much I would be paying in tax. This left me without roughly half of what I had earned that day being paid into my account. Hmmmmm.

My boyfriend has been dogging me for months to buy myself and iPad as soon as I get paid for this advert, as he has found his to be revolutionary in his life. I, on the other hand, believe in not spending money I do not have. And after this revaltion, I do not have as much as I thought I would.

Now as someone who has never received more than the copy of deposit slip, or an email informing I have been paid (Which was about R900 last year, and this year I peaked at R1400) this is quite something to get used to. And I had never paid tax before. Not that I had ever earned any amount which was significant enough to be taxed on. And 25% of my little earnings is quite something. Or rather, quite shocking for me. During the shoot for the advert I had now been paid for I had heard the two ladies who were doing our makeup discuss being taxed, and how, as freelance workers we were apparently in quite a high tax bracket. Now I know nothing about this yet. My mother, who strangely enough runs her own psychology practice wasn’t that much help either.

“As far as I know we can claim it back at the end of the financial year. I don’t know. We’ll find out”.

Hopefully this means that come the new year I can claim back that 25%, and that I have a nice little lump coming back my way. At least I hope that all the slips I’ve been saving and detailing the kilometres I drive up and down like a maniac isn’t for nothing!

The advantage is, that I know how much the usage percentage upon a contract, or call sheet works, and that overtime exists for actors!

I'm taking this tax thing as a learning experience!