christophe thinks out loud

Death will not release you

In celebration of US Tax Day tomorrow, Inland Revenue (the UK's equivalent of the IRS) sent me my UK tax return form. What fun!

Last I counted, I had about 4 pence of UK income from my dinky little savings account, but once a UK taxpayer, always a UK taxpayer, I guess. In case you think that the two-page US Form 1040 is intimidating, the UK equivalent runs a full 14 pages of extremely colorful line items (plus a 16 page tax calculation guide, if you do not want to take Inland Revenue up on their kind offer to calculate your tax bill for you). And, to make matters more interesting, the UK tax year runs from the first Monday in April, rather than from January 1st.

The UK used to have one of the simplest tax regimes in the world: PAYE, Pay As You Earn. You had tax withheld from your paycheck. At the end of the year, you . . . did nothing, as the amount you owed was exactly the amount that was withheld. Of course, they had to go and muck that all up.

On the other hand, the Pounds Sterling symbol is muchcooler than the dollar symbol.