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Strangest places accountants have discussed tax

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Who said tax had to be boring? Will Cole went on the hunt for some of the best tax stories from the Any Answers forums, and the accountingWEB community did not disappoint.
 

21st Jul 2022
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Tax advice is part and parcel of the accounting profession, offering clients your expertise and advice on a topic that most would be hopelessly lost on. 

Usually, such conversations happen between practitioner and client in the office or over the phone, yet, if this recent Any Answers post is anything to go by, some contributors have found themselves in some very interesting situations when it comes to offering advice.

A tax tip a day keeps the doctor away

Kicking off the conversation, user MCV71 went big on their own recent tax advice story after recently having surgery to have their eye removed, with the surgeon asking the contributor their thoughts at a somewhat inopportune moment. 

“Mid-surgery the team were talking amongst themselves about taxing the rich, then the main surgeon piped up "well, we have an accountant here, let's ask him his opinion too."

Unsurprisingly, MCV71 declined to offer his thoughts on the matter due to the fact that “naught but a sclera left in my orbital socket by that point.”

More surprisingly, however, is the frequency of examples users gave of being asked for advice when under the knife.

Cathygrimmer weighed in with her own tax story of how she had signed up her obstetrician while he prepped her for a caesarean, writing that “he was my client for the next 12 years. It did seem a bit weird at the time though!”

Power user memyself-eye also had his own story to tell, ending with him being asked during a vasectomy, only to say that they “perhaps best not go any further,” - we were inclined to agree with him.

The kids are alright

Moving onto calmer tax waters, other contributors had found that it wasn’t only adults who had a hankering for tax advice. 

Any Answers regular Tax Dragon has come to loggerheads with her extremely precocious “not-yet-one year old” who asks “why do we tax income so heavily and wealth so lightly?” I've tried explaining but I get "no Mum, that's silly!" 

Alialdabawi on the other hand looked to teach their four year old daughter using a slightly more practical approach when caught red-handed sneaking her dinner.

“I apologised and said that my bite wasn’t sharing, it was taxation,” Alialdabawi wrote, adding that “Ever since, each time I say taxation, she readily offers me a bite of whatever she is having.”

User atleastisoundknowledgable took a similar approach with his young son, enforcing a ‘daddy tax’ of around 10%. However his plans were soon scuppered when his operation was shut down by mummy, which begged the question: “does that make it a voluntary tax, like NI?”

Give an inch, take a mile

Of course, there will always be stories of practitioners batting away would-be clients on the hunt for free tax advice. Yet, some individuals pick some interesting places to bend the ear of the unsuspecting accountant.

Adam.arca, a self-confessed “keen runner”, had found himself as part of one of their client's Sunday morning running group. And while trying to keep up with his client was already hard enough, Adam.arca was also battling with them and others trying to glean some tax advice mid-run.

“Giving, or trying to avoid giving, tax advice to him and his mates whilst gasping for breath up a massively steep incline was always a bizarre experience,” Adam.arca wrote.

Jane Wanless had a similar experience at her amateur dramatics group. "One January when staging a pantomime, I was waiting in the wings to make my entrance, when another cast member asked which box on his return should his expenses go in."

However, when it comes to clients lacking tact, atleastisoundknowledgable might have taken the cake with their story at a funeral of a very distant relative.

“At the funeral of one of my wife’s far flung relatives who I’d never heard of, a (different) one of her far flung relatives who I’d never heard of pulled me aside on the 50 metre walk from the church building to the burial plot to discuss a MDTP idea,” atleastisoundknowledgable wrote.

“To give some context, he was a 65 year old part-time window cleaner earning £6kpa with no pension, and was the brother of the deceased.” - yikes.

Tell us all about your strangest tax advice stories in the comments section below.

Replies (3)

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7om
By Tom 7000
22nd Jul 2022 11:14

....why do we tax income so heavily and wealth so lightly?... Because the Wealthy make the tax rules, eh Mr Sunak?

on a ski lift, phone rang, signed client up just before I had to get off...

on TV ... News reader said Boots the chemist announce their result for the year... 4 year old said... is result Profit or Turnover Mom?

Thanks (3)
Replying to Tom 7000:
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By North East Accountant
22nd Jul 2022 12:47

You beat me to it....ski lift for me too...but I wouldn't dare answer the phone in case I dropped it (A good friend of mine I ski with every year....and he's a client too.).

Thanks (0)
Mark
By MarkRyan
22nd Jul 2022 11:49

During my second ever driving lesson, while driving towards the cliffs near Dover...
At the time, my tax and driving knowledge were closely matched

Thanks (2)