I'm currently writing up The Normanton Chronicles for my Sketchbook
Sushi series but today I find yet another excuse for putting that
off: I fill in my tax return. This could wait until September or even
January but it doesn't take that long to do and I can now live my life
without having that bit of unfinished business hanging over me.
In
a recent interview in The Morning News wandering artist Dan
Price (author of How to Make a Journal of Your Life,
right) said:
“I've been trying for years to 'zero out,' as in 'cut all the
crap out of my life.' To be able to wake up in the morning and have
absolutely nowhere I'm supposed to be.”
To achieve that tomorrow I've got a lot of places that I have to be today.
I'll get to Dan's point zero one day.
Going to the Dogs
Grey
plastic tax return envelopes have been dropping through doors everywhere
but our neighbours' dog soon processed their's when it dropped on the
mat: she grabbed it and chewed it to shreds. Our neighbours had to phone
up to order a second copy of the form. They explained that the dog had
eaten all their mail that day.
'So it wasn't victimization,' said the taxman, 'it wasn't just ours that
got shredded.'
Taxes and Tithes
Today
tax in England runs at about a quarter or more of income but in medieval
times it was just a tenth, known as a tithe and usually taken in the form
of a share of your harvest. All that remains of our local tithe barn in
Horbury is a few charred timbers: it burned down in the early 20th century.
Tithes were an offering to the church and the medieval Wakefield
Mystery Plays has a scene which suggests that tax dodging is
nothing new. Cain half-heartedly pays his dues, choosing the worst of
his sheaves of corn as an offering.
As Cain was a son of Adam this suggests that the medieval inhabitants
of Wakefield assumed that tax evasion goes back a long, long way.
I'm currently writing up The Normanton Chronicles for my Sketchbook
Sushi series but today I find yet another excuse for putting that
off: I fill in my tax return. This could wait until September or even
January but it doesn't take that long to do and I can now live my life
without having that bit of unfinished business hanging over me.
In
a recent interview in The Morning News wandering artist Dan
Price (author of How to Make a Journal of Your Life,
right) said:
Grey
plastic tax return envelopes have been dropping through doors everywhere
but our neighbours' dog soon processed their's when it dropped on the
mat: she grabbed it and chewed it to shreds. Our neighbours had to phone
up to order a second copy of the form. They explained that the dog had
eaten all their mail that day.
Today
tax in England runs at about a quarter or more of income but in medieval
times it was just a tenth, known as a tithe and usually taken in the form
of a share of your harvest. All that remains of our local tithe barn in
Horbury is a few charred timbers: it burned down in the early 20th century.