Day 591: The Tax Man Cometh

"Insert witty and or insightful quote about taxes here". That's right, you can't avoid them (except you can if you try. Or if you put all your money offshore. Or if you have a cash in hand job. Or you lie about how much money you have.)

I'll start again shall I.

That's right, it's time to tell the government how much money you haven't got. Except in Sweden where the tax office already knows exactly how much money you haven't got and just wants you to pat it on the back and tell it what a good job it's done following your every financial move. They send you a list of all your money's comings and goings and then all you have to do is go online and tick a box to accept the sums, which for the most part are correct.

It's a damn good thing the tax office is very well organised here because I don't generally have a fucking clue what's going on with my money when everything is explained to me in English, so I have no chance when everything is explained in Swedish. Tax language is one of many languages in which you can understand the individual words in a sentence and still not understand the sentence. For example, this gem: "8.3 Förlust fondandelar m.m. Förlust från bilaga K4 Avsnitt A, K10, K12, avsnitt B och K13" (Loss of mutual fund shares etc. Loss from attachment K4 section A, K10, K12, section B and K13)

One thing I can claim here, which I can't claim in England, is a tax rebate for travelling more than 2 kilometers to work! If you spend more than 10,000 SEK then you can claim tax back on anything you spent. According to Wikipedia the "reseavdrag" or travel compensation works on the principle that your job helps you pay tax and anything which is to the detriment of you working and paying tax should not also be taxed. But it is also pointed out that around 50% of claims for the reseavdrag are false and ask for more money than they should...

Meanwhile, environmentalists point out that the reseavdrag rewards people travelling long distances to work and even using their cars while those who cycle can't claim anything as they don't spend more than 10k on their bikes!

I'm not going to take this up as my political fight. I'm just going to reclaim me some tax money and let you lot figure out the morals for yourselves. Happy taxing!