January the 31st looms, and with it comes Her Majesty’s Revenue & Custom’s deadline for tax returns. A reminder bearing the pseudo-(laser printed)-stamp of officialdom slipped through my letterbox the other day. I would have preferred a signed Adam Hart-Davis “Tax Doesn’t Have To Be Taxing” T-Shirt but as HMRC saw fit to sack him I shall have to do without.
Perhaps if I imagine rubbing Comrade Brown’s nose against a grindstone it’ll make the whole self assessment process easier. Option two would be for me to just grin and bear it whilst playing the “good citizen fulfils legal obligations” card. Either way, I shall have to take a step out of Soviet Man’s book. Not content with merely solving such (taxing) problems, he even created a word to describe the solution:
shturmovshchina – (storm attack) A last minute rush, usually at the end of the month, in which workers strive to complete a task that they should have worked harder on from the outset.
So, all is not lost for those who like me haven’t finished their tax returns yet. Think positive, think shturmovshchina – it worked for the LADA car company.
I did mine last weekend, (i.e. sent figures to accountants, did a year’s worth of filing) but shturmovshchina is my general MO. Shame it’s such a mouthful or I’d use it as often as schaddenfreude and Sturm und Drang.
Also, I totally missed the memo about the merger of Inland Revenue with Her Majesty’s Customs & Excise to create HMRC. Apparently happened in 2005!?
P.S. typo in your tag.
Of course there’s a typo. It’s there to: a) check that you’re reading/alert, and b) facilitate in any future mole hunting should someone see fit to copy things without permission – the “Feds” used to employ a similar technique.