Tax Returns Are Fun

Those of you who are employed by someone else will probably not know that online self assessment tax returns have to be in by the 30th of December.

I, however, did know - they wrote to me in April and told me. Today is the 21st of December, and that means that I have 8 days left in which to submit my tax return.

It's not that I forgot, it's just that I have been incredibly efficient at putting it off. It's not that numbers scare me, it's just that these numbers have consequences. And that I don't really understand all of them. And that if the numbers are wrong, the consequences would be more numbers; big red numbers next to angry words.

Most people in my position would think about getting an accountant. I also thought about getting an accountant, for they understand the magical inner workings of capital allowance, and whether cars qualify for first year allowance or merely the writing down allowance. The PDF Files of Wisdom suggest that it is the latter, but I can't sue a bunch of PDFs if they have advised me incorrectly. So I thought about getting an accountant, but then I am a proficient procrastinator.

I will not bore you with the minutiae of my tax return, but suffice it to say that it doesn't look like they'll be paying me like they did last year. I will throw out one exciting figure for you though - in the financial year 2005-2006, I spent £1084.75 on petrol. Of which about £750 would have been tax as duty and VAT. Ouch. And now I have to pay them more? I need to find a better country ;)

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