Interchange Vacation Club Special levy

[Dom Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dom]

Hi all,
Are there any Interchange Vacation Club member? I need some one help me about my club (Interchange Vacation Club) in Australia sent me an invoice about Extraordinary Special Levy to pay the last 4 years member's maintenance fee GST to Australia Taxation Office. Have any one of you got that invoice or heard about that? Please help me to clarify that is true to be pay to Australia Taxation Office. Their letter said under the February 2010 Australia Taxation Office new law all timeshare could face the same special levy to pay the GST payment from members yearly maintenance fee. Is this apply to your timeshare club as well?
Could you please give me advices.
Thanks
Dom

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

We got the opposite letter from one of our Australian timeshares.
We had always paid GST on our levies and our timeshare wrote to us for this financial year that the ATO had advised that GST was NOT payable on maintenance levies. However, they said it wasn't an official tax ruling but the ATO interpretation of the law. So consequently, we now do not pay GST on our levy. Our other Australian timeshare said they did not want to take the risk (I interpret this as them being too lazy to follow up on this as it's a hassle for them) so they will continue to charge the GST on our levies.
So one of them will continue to charge the GST while the other one is no longer charge it and in fact said they were investigating whether they can get the GST refunded from the ATO for the previous years of payment.

Goes to show it depends who's running your timeshare board as to who's proactive for owners benefit.

Therefore, I suggest you call the ATO yourself and ask for clarification and inform your timeshare board the real status of the ATO's stance.

[Dom Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dom]

Thanks Sydney,
I had been told by the ATO officer refer to ATO ID 2010/23 which has Date of publication: 5 February 2010. The last paragraph is "The annual maintenance fee payable by a participant for levy periods commencing on or after 20 December 2000 is, therefore, not consideration for a taxable supply as it is consideration for an input taxed financial supply of an interest in a time-sharing scheme under subsection 40-5(1) of the GST Act."
This means no GST for timeshare levy. You can check it out yourself at Australian Taxation Office Homepage. tick Legal database box then search for "timeshare gst" or ATO ID 2010/23.
You can show your timeshare manager of this document too. This may save your GST from now on. I have to do that to my timeshare manager too and hopefully no special levy for all of our members.
I wish all Interchange Vacation Club member can see that too but I don't know how to communicate to them.
Thanks again.
Dom

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

Thanks Dom. Good luck with Interchange.

[Dom Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dom]

Hi Sydney,
I just been told by ATO officer about the Interchange special levy. The real problem of this is not GST in maintenance levy but The club had claimed the GST rebate from the club maintenance expend. This mean the club got all the service GST money which normally should not be claimed from the maintenance service GST by other service provider. They have to pay back the ATO now. I hope your club did not do that way.

Dom

[tonkin Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tonkin]

I am an Interchange Vacation Club Member. Before I joined interchange I was with Holiday Concepts and changed when they were discussing changing to the points system. Holiday Concepts would charge a refurbishment levy every 5 to 7 years or so. Now Interchange is trying to charge me a refirbishment levy every year since 2008 and I cant remember how many before that date I paid. The levy should not happen every year unless they need the money for something else and use the title "refirbish" so members won't query it. Are you or any other members concerned about this policy.
Regards concerned member.

[Mark D Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark D]

I too am a member of IVC and have become more and more disillusioned with the company; the costs involved in membership have become quite outrageous. When we purchased our points in 2006, one of the main selling points they used was "buying future holidays at todays prices". The increases in fees and levies now mean that it costs significantly more to stay at many of the properties they manage than it does as a non member. I have written to them to complain and have received completely unsatisfactory replies. Furthermore, many of their tactics are quite underhand - for example, they wait until you have paid your annual fees and then foist an unheralded special levy upon you, so that you are compelled to pay it or lose the money already paid. I have done some comparisons on costs of a weeks accommodation in 2007 and 2010, and for members and the public via sites such as Wotif, and will happily post them if people are interested.
If I lived on the Gold Coast, I would be down at the Chevron Rennaissance where they approach the public to entice them with their scratchies, handing out a financial analysis of the true cost of membership to unsuspecting folk so they can make an informed decision and be aware of the magnitude of the apparent deception by this company.
I feel that it is time for the membership to form some sort of lobby group to air our concerns. It is very difficult to find who the other members are, though.

[MGH Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MGH]

Hi Mark D. I would love to see the comparisons posted. I'm also an IVC member and am feeling a little ripped off of late.

[Mark D Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark D]

The following are my calculations of the cost, to members,of staying at selected IVC properties. I have used Gold and Sunshine Coast resorts as I consider that they are the most relevant to the majority of members.The cost is calculated by: Annual membership fee + user charge + $cost of points (the cost of points is $3.90/point with a life of 80 years = 4.875c/point/year during medium time)
Surfers Royale 1br: 220 + 743 + 165 = $1128 (1 week/yr) or $1018 (2 weeks)
'' '' 2br: 220 + 743 + 237 = $1200 $1090
BeachHouse: 220 + 624 + 237 = $1081 $971
Beachcomber: 220 + 681 + 237 = $1138 $1028
Sandy Point 2br: 220 + 663 + 237 = $1120 $1010
Golden Shores: 220 + 663 + 174 = $1054 $944
Pacific View: 220 + 532 + 161 = $913 $803

By means of a comparison, a member of the public who has made no financial commitment to the club can stay at the resorts for:
Surfers Royale 1br: $136/night (2 nights minimum) or $952/week
" " 2br: $160/night (2n/m) or $1120/week. I have seen rates as low as $754/week in winter.
BeachHouse and Beachcomber: $152/night or $1064/week, with a 2 night minimum stay. In November and early December a non-member can stay for $116p/n for 5 nights or $112p/n for a week - $784!!!
Sandy Point 2br: $148pn - $1036pw with a current special of $784.
Golden Shores: $148pn - $1036pw.
All of the above rates are via Wotif.
Pacific View, via their own website, as little as $650 in the off season.

I have decided not to include the 'special levies' in my calculations to offset these against any bonus points earned for early membership fee payment. However, we are going to have to earn lots of bonus points to make up for this years' levy!

To further aggravate the situation, the cost of staying at most of the properties that IVC lease has absolutely skyrocketed. In August 2007 we stayed at the Chevron Renaissance for the total cost ($195 + 401 + 264) of $860. In Aug '10 it would have cost us $1322 for the same week. Friends of ours stayed at Q1 for $860 in Aug '07 - last month it would have cost them $1283.

Future holidays at today's prices. Yeah, right!

We've been had.

[Mark D Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark D]

I apologise if the above post is a little confusing, but I was not able to tabulate the costs properly due to the format of the postings. The last figures in the resorts list are for one or two weeks. In reality, the only real savings when you use multiple weeks each year is to reduce the cost of your annual membership fee on a per week basis.

[Barry Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Barry]

Ivc

Maybe all members should band toghether , and insure that at the next AGM we either impose change or make change within the board and all the wages / fee's they are being paid?

BARRY

[Dom Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dom]

Hi Mark,
I had been holiday and my PC is brocken down. I'm sorry to reply so late. I agree with you that the time share concept give me less value than before. I wish there are some other way to get better value in service from different exchange holliday. Some one told me they exchange their time share directly to time share owner that they safe more money excluding the club service charge. But it only works with the time share owner not with the point system time share.
I wish there may be more better way o use our time share wisely in the future.

[koppo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close koppo]

Hi all, is everyone else now been contacted by a rep from Classic holiday club saying that they have taken over the management of IVC and that they know IVC customers are not very happy so they are offering "some" IVC members an out? Originally i was offered a 20 year membership for $7,540, now a 15yr membership for $5,990.... when i called IVC to ask if they were IVC or classic and to make a few enquiries i was told that they have actually brought IVC.... then when the rep range me back, about 20 times now, i asked him again if they were just managing or have brought IVC and he assured me that they were only managing it and back peddled big time when i told him that i had made my own enquiries. I just want to know how to get out of it. I found a post on FIDO which is part of the Australian Investment and securities commission stating that anyone who purchased IVC membership between 1.12.2004-21.06.2005 was to be called and could possibly get out and get a refund so i went to log into my IVC account as i think this is around the time we joined and of course the website is not working again which happened 12 or so months ago....
thanks

[Blocka3 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Blocka3]

Hi koppo
I have also been contacted from Class Escape also not happy found out some things not aware of like we are locked into paying over $1000 ++ every year for 80 years and that we lose our user fees after 3 years accumlating-this was a surprise.
these points were not discussed on the hard sell while we were on holidays
Has anyone else had dealings with Classic Escape and how did you all go, the lady makes it sound all doom and gloom for the remaining members of IVC.
Any advise

[dakota64 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dakota64]

Hi we to have been contacted by classic re escape package ! I agree we paid good money to join interchange to secure holidays at todays prices , (and I agree that has not happened) surely there would be some kind of problem with false advertising as that is exactly what we were told at the time of purchasing and yes it was great value for a couple of years then wow did it go up , and what I would like to know also if IVC is now owned and managed by classic why we can't already access their low fees without the cost of transfering over , I think its an insult to ask us to pay more when we already paid significantly for our current memberships , e were offered 20yr for $7490 and maybe when lifetime membership becomes avail $9490 for that , on top of what we already paid and then still have to pay when we go away yes it might be cheaper at the moment but whats to stop them from going up in the same manner that IVC did , I to sent an email to the managers of IVC when the costs went up and they did come down for a few months then suprise they went up again after that , I want if thats the way classic want to go give is free membership as we have paid ou dues !!