Come, Mister Tally Man

In the previous UK financial year (2024–25), I earnt the princely sum of £9,500 in UK-taxable income (due, in no small part, to moving abroad in the summer). This was to be all covered by my Personal Allowance of £12,500-ish per year, and so my total taxable amount should have been nil. So why—the fuck—did I just have to lend the taxman almost eight and a half thousand pounds? ‘Just get an accountant’, you say? Never! I figured out how to file my US taxes on my own, and only once did I accidentally claim to have made several thousands of dollars in agricultural losses. Some masochistic part of me enjoys the puzzle-like element of trying to figure out how it all works. Plus, I feel on principle (as with law) that no taxation system should be beyond the ken of any sufficiently motivated subject. Also, as we shall see, I think a good chunk of the bill would have been unavoidable even with an accountant’s assistance. Square Peg, Round Holes ¶ The UK is a deeply silly country, in ways that…