Darling

Another story courtesy of Paul Aplin, Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty at the start of the Wyman Symposium last week:

He had been explaining that the relationship between HMRC and the professional bodies was something like that of a marriage and that perhaps what was required was some relationship counselling. In this context he recalled being advised that this often involves both parties being told that they must 'listen' as well as 'talk'.

Paul was at pains to point out that despite being married for many years he had no first hand knowledge of relationship counselling. Apparently this nearly changed recently when his wife noticed a new folder on his computer. She hadn't seen it before and thus doubted it had anything to do with her. And yet it was called 'Darling'.

Paul's wife only calmed down when the contents of the folder were revealed to be letters to our new Chancellor!

Yellow pages

At the start of the Wyman Symposium last night, Paul Aplin, Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty explained that he had initially baulked at the idea of being an 'Intermediary' which is HMRCs preferred word to describe accountants and tax agents.

He changed his mind after looking up Tax Adviser in the Yellow Pages and finding it wedged between Tatooists and Taxidermists!

The shy and retiring accountant

One who is £1 million shy and hence is retiring.

Why is accountancy like mountain climbing?

Once you finish the job and get to the top, you still can't really see anything.

[This 'joke' was created by a couple of Accountancy Age journalists who recently spent the weekend climbing mountains and then musing about the similarities and differences between accountancy and mountain climbing. The big difference they identified? "Some would say that accountancy is a slightly dry subject. Whatever else you could say about the weekend's weather, the word 'dry' never came into it."]

Film: Stranger than fiction

This one's not a joke but it must rank as a fun - A recent film about a tax auditor starring Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. What a bizarre concept!

In the film Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, a tax auditor who lives an excruciatingly well-planned life. He wakes one day to hear a woman's voice narrating his life and, in one disturbing scene, predicting his death. Crick sets out to find out whether he's mad but ends up on a trail that leads him to writer Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) - who, as chance would have it, is writing a book in narrative style about the life of Harold Crick, a tax auditor who lives an excruciatingly well-planned life. With his life in her hands, so to speak, their relationship takes a peculiar twist when Harold learns Eiffel's novel is not to have a happy ending.

Ok - maybe not fun!

In an earlier post last year I listed a number of other films that featured accountants as main characters. Have a guess as to how many are on the list before you check back to see. Please add any others of which you are aware by way of comments. Thanks.

Arctic limericks

AccountingWEB recently ran a limerick competition with reference to the case of Jones v Garnett - otherwise known as Arctic Systems Limited - which was finally heard by the House of Lords earlier this month. Geoff Jones and his wife Diana's financial arrangements have been attacked by HMRC under the settlements legislation. Most commentators take a different view to HMRC.

My favourite limerick was one of the runners up according to the AccountingWEB judges:

In the House of Lords one June day
Geoff Jones was having his say
“Being taxed on Di’s share
Is distinctly unfair
When the law is decidedly grey!”

Well done to Jo Stimpson - You woz robbed!

The Taxman's typos

As the late great(?) Cyril Fletcher would say on 'That's Life' - I am indebted to Jane Moore, editor of the ICAEW's Taxline magazine which recently contained the following:

Supplied by Alan Carter who received this from an HMRC large processing office about his client's tax code:
"I refer to your letter of 30 April 2007. Please accept my apology for any incontinence caused. Your client's tax code has now been amended...."

Jane also mentioned another gem sent to her by Alan Sacks. He said that HMRC had written to confirm that a client's DOM1 form had been sent to HMRC’s Residency section for consideration of his 'dummy file position'.

I'd welcome further such examples as comments on this blog item.