Hiya

So here we go. I'm hoping to use this blog as a process of discovery into the bewildering, complex but interesting world of tax. Tax may be one of the two certainties in life, but little else about tax seems certain. The laws change more frequently than most other laws (hello Budget Day), and they vary so much from country to country (HK versus Belgium for instance)! I like how tax is such a practical and important part of our lives - it affects just about every single thing you can think of and I also find it fascinating how it's actively being used by governments as a tool for social engineering. Our reactions to it also reveal plenty about who we are and what we stand for. Aside from policy issues, there are so many opportunities to be creative and imaginative with the practice of tax law itself. Law, being drafted by humans, is not infallible, and some digging around is likely to reveal unexpected inconsistencies and ambiguities - loopholes that easily get exploited, which then turns into an intellectual cat and mouse game with the authorities. In court, this manifests itself in all sorts of interesting situations e.g. whether Jaffa Cakes are cakes or biscuits, and whether Pringles are crisps or something else altogether! Tax seems connected to so many areas: economics, social policy, philosophy, accounting, politics...and so anyway hopefully I'll get to cover as many areas as I can in my quest to gain a deeper understanding of what this tax thingy is all about!