Tax, man...
I've spent almost the entire day doing my tax return. No, I'm not keen. It's just last year's return and the final deadline is fast approaching - 31st January 2002. I always promise myself I'm going to do it early but this year I missed the we-will-calculate-your-tax-for-you deadline in September and am now having to calculate it all myself. Bah!
I suppose I have no real objection to paying income tax per se. As long as the money is well spent and as long as everybody else pays it too I think it is a very good way of funding public and social services, education, the military, government blah, blah, blah. I've always found the Inland Revenue (IR) to be helpful, prompt and (best of all) pragmatic. No, the IR is fine. It's Custom and Excise (C&E) I can't stand. They have unpopular taxes (VAT, duty on alcohol etc) and unlimited powers to search your home and investigate you without a court order.
Funny then that whenever I sit down to do my tax return (run by IR) it fills me with the same feeling as walking through the Nothing To Declare channel at customs (run by C&E). I know I've done nothing wrong but you can't but feel guilty about something. This time especially I don't think I have anything to feel guilt about. I reckon they owe me a £111 tax rebate.
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