current affairs, thoughts

Tax Advice

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Ken over at HMRC is Shite today highlights the apparent possibility of legislation which would ban anyone from giving tax advice which reduced the client’s tax bill. And the way the proposed legislation works this would mean no-one can do any tax work for anyone else.  Ken quotes the following clauses from the draft legislation:

“Tax agent
2 (1) A person is a tax agent if the person assists another person (a ‘client’) with the client’s tax affairs.
(2) A person may be a tax agent even if—
(a) the assistance is given free of charge,
(b) the assistance is given otherwise than in the course of business,
(c) the assistance is given indirectly to the client or at the request of someone other than the client, or
(d) the assistance is not given specifically to assist with the client’s tax affairs, but the person giving the assistance knows it will be used, or is likely to be used, for that purpose.
(3) Assistance with a client’s tax affairs includes assistance with any document that is likely to be relied on by HMRC to determine the client’s tax position.
(4) Assistance with a client’s tax affairs also includes—
(a) advising a client in relation to tax, and
(b) acting or purporting to act as agent on behalf of a client in relation to tax.
(5) If a client is assisted by more than one individual in a firm or business, each individual may be regarded as a separate tax agent.” 

This is craziness gone loony!  It is not just another long step towards a police state; I would put it in the very small class of things which I describe with a word I seldom use: obscene!  It would effectively mean that not only can I not discuss any financial matters with my 94 year old mother because even if all I say is “Put your money in an ISA” I am advising that she reduce her tax bill, which would now be an illegal act on my part.  Worse it means that I cannot even prepare my mother’s tax return for her even if she is unable to write or has dementia.  I’m sure that isn’t what is intended but that is certainly how I (and others; see Ken’s posting) read the words.  Now how crazy is that?!?!

WTF are they thinking?!?!?!

arts, history, memes, photography, topographical

Thing-a-Day #16 : Boys on the Tube


Thing-a-Day #16 : Boys on the Tube, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Today we took our friend Sue and her two boys Sam (with book on head) and Harry to the Museum in (London) Docklands. Here’s a montage of two frames I made of the three of them on the London Underground – with Sam and Harry wrecking their copies of Keri Smith’s This is Not a Book.

The Museum in Docklands is well worth visiting; there was much more to see than I’d expected and it was almost all interesting. It charts the history of the Port of London from Roman times to the present and currently has an exhibition on “London, Sugar and Slavery”. Admission is £5 for adults (which entitles you to free entry for a year!); free for under 16s. Follow the link for museum details.

They also have a good café (called 1802) where we had coffee, lunch and afternoon tea with the boys devouring copious quantities of chocolate brownie. And the café does hand-cut, really chunky chips to die for. We all enjoyed the food and I doubt any of us need to eat again this week!

The downside? The Underground ride home was horrible: unstable, wet (it was pouring with rain all day), stuffy, humid, crowded, hot. Yeuch! It was a good reminder of why I hate the Underground and why I used to have panic attacks when I had to use it regularly. But I got to go on the DLR, which somehow I’ve avoided up to now.

But otherwise a good day!

memes, photography

Winter Meme


Winter Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

The weekly Flickr meme currently has a seasonal theme. This week is WINTER. So here are my 12 photographs on the subject of winter.

1. Winter Be Gone
2. Winter’s Story
3. summer or winter?
4. winter meditation: loving-kindness
5. … a touch of yellow …
6. The Long Winters
7. Winter blues?
8. Winter Beach Huts
9. It’s Winter Time
10. Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis)
11. Winter Party Beach Party 2008
12. Penultimate Winter Rose

As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

memes, photography

Thing-a-Day #15 : Spring Meme


Spring Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.

The weekly Flickr meme currently has a seasonal theme. This week it is SPRING! Here are my 12 photographs on the subject of spring. (And I still have to catch up on last week’s Winter Meme, too.)

1. Clip Spring
2. Spring
3. finally… Spring!
4. Spring!
5. Untitled
6. Rusty Spring
7. Plastic pegs
8. Metal Spring
9. Rainbow Magic Spring
10. Pegging Out
11. springs
12. Inward Spiral

As always the photographs are not mine so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

memes, photography

Thing-a-Day #14 : 60163 Tornado


Thing-a-Day #14 : 60163 Tornado, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Today I went for a trip on a train pulled by the fantastic new steam loco, Tornado. Yes it is a completely new build but to the original A1 design from 50+ years ago – the last real A1 was scrapped in (from memory) 1966. There is more on the building of Tornado at www.a1steam.com. It is a fantastically big brute of an engine, but incredibly graceful too; and it runs like a dream.

This shows 60163 standing at Platform 1 of London Paddington at the end of today’s tour.

[15/02/2010: corrected the link to the Tornado website.]