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Looking to the future; grateful for the past

31/12/2015 by Webmaster

How was your Christmas? We hope Santa was good to you! After you had your fill of presents and TV, had eaten your fill of turkey, and watched the Queen’s Speech, what else could you have done on Christmas Day but file your tax return?

Well in contrast to previous years, we don't really know - the traditional HMRC press release telling us seems to have gone missing.  In previous years we know that 1,500 - 2,000 people have logged on to HMRC’s website on December 25 to file their annual return. The busiest time was early afternoon. We don't know about you, but we had better things to do then!

“Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.” (CS Lewis)

And maybe the HMRC press office has had other things on its mind, what with their boss being on the New Year Honours List. "Dame Disaster" is that the Daily Mail is calling Lin Homer today, reminding us that Miss Homer was the £200,000-a-year boss of the immigration system branded 'not fit for purpose' by then home secretary John Reid in 2006. Incompetence leads to promotion, it seems, as she now "Lords it" over HMRC where the taxman failed to answer 18million phone calls from the public last year – more than a quarter of those it received. And in September Miss Homer admitted half of taxpayers who called the HMRC helpline did not get through during busy periods. So what? Give her a gong!

Anyway, Christmas is past and we had better not go on about HMRC's failings again - in case we get trapped in a time when, as CS Lewis would have put it, it is ... 

“Always winter but never Christmas.” (CS Lewis)

Looking forward to lighter nights and spring shoots? Winter now seems to be warm and wet - very wet, although luckily Stonehaven has been spared the worst of it.  The Dee at Garthdee was above 6 metres – that is 2 metres above its previous recorded high, we see from the SEPA website, and 75 miles of the A93 is closed to traffic. Next year will be miles better, we hope.

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” (CS Lewis)

On the road to success, the rule is - always to look ahead. May you reach your destination. May your journey be wonderful. May you have a Happy New Year.

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