As is always the
case, I’m totting up the figures for my Self-assessment Tax Return at the
eleventh hour.
I’m not concerned
about it, as I’ve got things in hand and the end is in sight, but I'm
irritated with myself that if I was just a bit more organised, I wouldn’t have
this annual rush to the finish.
The problem is however good my intentions are, the last thing I want to do when I’ve
submitted a return is to think about getting my records in order for the next
one. Then time passes and I forget about it, until before long, it’s the end of
January and Moira Stuart, Adam Hart Davis - or whoever is fronting that year’s
HMRC poster campaign – is banging on my door (metaphorically speaking).
Even though I say
it every year, this is the last time it will be like this. For a start, I’m
already being shrewder about the receipts I keep (unlike in 2014/15, where I
wasted a couple of hours binning ones that were irrelevant, and
separating those that won’t apply to 2015/16). Doggett & Ephgrave have also
taken on a new accountant to look after our increasingly complicated financial
affairs. Neither of us want to end up in prison, though if we did, at least it
would take away the pressures of compiling our tax return, or having to
vote.