An Australian influencer has revealed the huge sum of her tax bill after not knowing how taxes worked at the beginning of her career.
Influencer-turned-entrepreneur Brittney Saunders, 31, is now a multimillionaire after starting her size-inclusive fashion label Fayt.
But it didn’t come easy for the designer, who admitted there was a time before starting the business when she was forced to fork out $100,000 while working as a ‘self-employed person’.
Speaking on her podcast Big Business with Brittney Saunders, Brittney said there was a period in her early 20s where she hadn’t paid her taxes in over two years.
‘I didn’t know how it worked, I was so used to working my Monday to Friday full time job and getting my pay slip every week and seeing the tax being taken out. And then all of a sudden, I’m working for myself at 21 years old, I didn’t know how tax worked,’ she admitted.
The YouTube vlogger also revealed she didn’t have a ‘supportive family network’ who knew about self employment.
‘No one ever taught me about money, or how to save or tax or anything like that,’ she said.
‘So, for around two years, when I was an influencer and earning all this money, I just simply didn’t pay tax. Because when you own your own business, or you’re working for yourself.
Influencer-turned-entrepreneur Brittney Saunders, 31, is now a multimillionaire. But it didn’t come easy for the designer, who admitted there was a time before starting the business where she was forced to fork out $100,000 after not paying her taxes for two years
‘I didn’t know how I was meant to pay tax, like, how do you do that? What do you genuinely do? Because when you’re getting paid as a self employed person, and you’ve got payments coming in – I was working with brands – the money just goes into your account and that’s it!
‘Then you have to work out how you’re going to pay tax on that. You don’t pay tax every week the way that employees do. You have to collect [the money] all together, and then have an accountant, process that for you for the end of financial year.’
Brittney said she finally got an accountant after growing concern for her finances and awaited a phone call from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for the outstanding payments.
When she finally got the call, she was expected to owe a whopping $100,000.
Brittney said she finally got an accountant after growing concern for her finances and awaited a phone call from the ATO for the outstanding payments. When she finally got the call, she was expected to owe a whopping $100,000
‘I owed $100,000. And I’m in my early 20s. And I owe $100,000. Which, in saying that, I know that’s a crazy amount. But if you’re owing that amount, you’re earning quite a decent amount,’ she said.
Brittney explained that she went on a payment plan to pay back the amount owing, revealing she’d paid it off ‘a lot quicker’ than expected due to having some savings in her account.
‘When you’re in debt to the tax, man, the interest that you get charged is like 12.5 per cent or something. So I owed $100,000 and was paying 12.5 per cent interest. So I paid it a lot quicker than I was supposed to,’ she added.
The influencer continued, saying it was an important life lesson she’d learned at an earlier point in her career.
Brittney is originally from Newcastle but now spends most of her time in Sydney tending to her businesses and speaking on podcasts
‘So that was a great lesson for me in my early 20s and something that I will never forget. I remember I felt sick over it … owing that amount of money and just having to pay it down,’ she said.
‘But it was a great lesson for me to be more smart with my money and have my finances in order.’
Brittney is originally from Newcastle but now spends most of her time in Sydney tending to her businesses and speaking on podcasts.
Her clothing label, Fayt, offers clothing in a wide variety of sizes and high-quality fabrics, with sizes ranging from 6 to 24.
Brittney is also the proud CEO of Staple Swim, Form Active, Fayt The Store, Outdo Collective and Outdo Espresso.
