Why do most people stop at a red traffic light? Is it fear of punishment, self-preservation, because the law says you should (in other words, respect for the rules) or because society expects you to?
When I revamped my website I was persuaded that it would a good idea to invite the tax-confused to contact me with their questions. There’s a lot of them out there. No wonder, if you ask me.
I studied the law of international and European institutions at University. It was 1973 and the UK had just joined the European Community (as it then was). I was a committed European and, after I graduated, I hot-footed it to Brussels for a six-month placement with the European Commission.
‘’Pet’, the international sheeperstar and online sensation from Lochside Ullapool, has emphatically denied that her new found celebrity status will change her in any way.
It’s going to be a short blog post this month as I am absolutely knackered. The combination of moving house and rampant insomnia has brought dark clouds to my normally sunny disposition In the move I’ve lost the glass top to my Daum inkwell as well as six coffee cups and saucers with picture of human vital organs on them (a present from a Dutch friend who is an ENT surgeon). And I’ve broken my favourite teapot.
The snappily-titled ‘higher rates of SDLT on purchases of additional residential properties where the consideration is over £40,000’ come in on 1 April and it seems that a lot of people are going to be caught by George’s little SDLT prank.
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” (Peter Clemenza in ‘The Godfather’)
I was uneasy about using social media. Not as uneasy as Tony Soprano was about his first appointment with Dr Melfi, but uneasy.
No New Year’s Honour for me, unlike Lin Homer the HMRC chief executive who got a DCB (Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath) for public service ‘particularly in public finance.’ This was in spite of the fact that HMRC were on the naughty step for nearly the whole of 2015.