Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Tax has to be taxing

With George back from hospital I can now try to start putting my work life back together. This means there's a whole raft of bitty things to do today the most pressing of which is my self assesment tax form.

I do a lot of adding up of recipts and even though I've been freelance for years, this process always leaves me with a vague sense that I've missed something big or got something wrong that will come back to haunt me some time in the next 5 years.

I'm hoping not, but who knows?

It's a little like being back at school - kn0wing your homework will be marked and knowing there will be consequences if you get it wrong, but not having any idea of the marking criterior or what the examiner is looking for.

"Tax doesn't have to be taxing" the revenue's slogan is relentlessly repeated on TV and the radio- but the rest of the advertising is nothing but thinly veiled threats. No hint of why it doesn't have to be taxing or indication of the help they're offering to stop it from being taxing. Like a doctor claiming "this will hurt me more than it hurts you" it's simply untrue.

If the adverts were made by any privately owned business they'd be illegal - judged to misrepresent the facts.

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