Shockingly enough, “Stephanie”, the guitarist who is so successful that she pulls in $300,065 a year and has been used by as an example by the federal government to spruik its small business tax benefits, does not fucking exist in any kind of reality.
“Stephanie” went viral as balls earlier this week, after The ABC’s Mark Fennell Tweeted an image of her from the Budget.Gov.Au website, bemused that some unheard-of musician was raking in mad money in an industry where most can barely cover a carton of beer.
300k for a “small sole trader” in a band?? Does anyone in the government actually know anyone in the music biz??? pic.twitter.com/HYFHN7iaHU
— Marc Fennell (@marcfennell) July 12, 2015
Yesterday, “Stephanie” was officially debunked, with a representative for the Treasurer’s office confirming that she, like various other case studies on the budget website, is not real, and is just someone they made up as an example of how tax incentives work.
That said, while Stephanie is just a hypothtical, the Treasurer’s office have maintained that the earnings they described for her are roughly based off the tax return data of those who report that they are “musicians and entertainers.”
They told Fairfax:
“Whilst the stereotype of a musician is that they do not earn very much, it is evident from the data that those who ‘primarily’ identify as musicians and have taxable income from that activity earn amounts similar to those that appear on the website.”
Who the fuck are these people?
If you’re a muso pulling in that kind of money, we’d love to hear about it.
Since the news broke, things have been pretty rough for Stephanie, whose yearly earnings have dropped by $83,900 since ditching her band and going incognito under the name ‘Cassandra’.
#Praying for Stephanie. #Praying for us all.
via Fairfax
