Taxmans nightmare

Falling petrol prices and less fuel and VAT tax to fill the finance ministers coffers for the enormous short and middle term costs of the events in Germany and elsewhere this year.

There have been calls over the last year or two to scrap the special "Solidarity Tax" imposed after the Wall came down, to finance the massive reconstruction of the former DDR. I suspect it will now not be be scrapped but simply renamed.

All this and more was the subject of my meeting in Memmingen with the charming lady from the tax advisers. Luckily all went well and quickly and even if I say it myself, I got praised for my preparation work.

At such meetings, I am always reminded of the ease of tax and benefit matters within the EU. I have a few UK shares, the combined annual dividends not enough to buy a Ryanair flight to the UK, but these and the small pension/disability payments from the UK are no problem, the German taxman takes in to account the UK tax paid without any comment.

In the current discussion about EU migrants to the UK, one should perhaps not forget that it works both ways. I was transfered to Germany by my UK plc company and told I was to be made redundant just 17 days later. Back then (1990) the unemployment office had no problem in calculating benefits all based on my UK employment record. As it turned out I didn't end up with much due to the 6 months pay in lieu but the entire process was pain free. Exactly the same when I was pronounced unfit to work and told I had to take early pension. The German pension people automatically without my knowledge sent the details to the UK pensions people (I think in Newcastle) and shortly afterwards they sent me details of what I was going to get from the UK. Apart from a simple few forms for me to complete, they took on board all the technical/medical documentation sent from the German pensions people.

After completing the tax return, spent a few hours simply wandering around the nearby shops in a rather bland shopping centre. The weather was appalling and maybe that kept the mood supressed. I didn't buy a single thing apart from a lottery ticket for the so called "Euro Millions", drawn on Fridays, my ticket is for the 25th - I do rather like the idea of having enough money to buy out Blip - would save finding Christmas presents for lots of people.

Also did take the opportunity to fill up with diesel. Garage cashier thought we might get under the one Euro mark during the day.