A day at the races

I love a day at the races and am eagerly anticipating March’s Cheltenham Festival. Do I pick many winners? Well I get one or two and when I’m studying form what always impresses me is a course and distance winner.
For those of us at a certain age, that might also describe our careers! It was 14 February that I commenced my affair with tax when I joined what was then HM Inland Revenue as a direct-entrant Inspector of Taxes and so this year I start my 28th year in tax. What a different world it was back then. Corporation tax was at 52% (even the small companies rate was 38%) and the top rate of income tax was 60%. Painful rates of tax. I remember all assessments were started on paper and there no computers in our local tax office in London. Letters which needing typing went to Poole – not a local typing pool, but Poole in Dorset! Haven’t times changed?
I met my wife when we both worked for the Inland Revenue and we celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary in 2010 – you might say I’m a course and distance winner on both fronts!