Happy new financial year! I hope all you self employed people got your tax done in time. I used to hate this time of year when I was self employed. I feel for you. All that trying to salvage a load of creased, slightly ripped illegible scraps of paper from every orifice in your bedroom, promising yourself that you’ll be more organised next year. Yes, I certainly don’t miss that at all now I’m fully employed. I used to get really paranoid about receipts I’d lost, how much I’d end up being taxed, and whether I’d have enough in the bank to cover the balance when the bill finally arrived. By the way, this isn’t some weird boastfulness – I’m not trying to say that I’d earned such a great amount of money I would subsequently anticipate being taxed a small fortune. If anything, this is more a proclamation of how bad I always was at being self-employed; perpetually having such a small amount tucked in the bank because I earned so little. Thankfully these times are all behind me now. And perversely, rather than having my bank account damaged, I actually get some pay arrears in my pay packet nowadays, so April sees me as a payee rather than a payer. Not that I’m trying to rub it in and make anyone who is self-employed feel worse. We’ve all got our crosses to bear. For example, this new financial year sees the inconvenience of my car parking pass expiring. Due to budget cuts, they have not been replaced either. Irritatingly I only remembered this fact once I had driven half-way to work.
I considered my options (or indeed lack of them). I could park in town, but the price of city centre car parks are pretty extortionate. It would be a pretty demoralising thought, knowing that a significant percentage of my hourly wage was being earned by an inanimate car park space. I couldn’t drop my car home and use the bus either. The busses run so infrequently from my suburban village that it’d be nearing dinnertime by the time I finally got to work.
When I arrived near town, I resolved to drive around the surrounding outer areas of the city looking for a street I could park in for free. It was a pleasant morning and I was more than happy to have a nice walk into the City. I drove around for ages looking for somewhere to pull up, but of course, a good proportion of City workers have a similar idea; and seeing as my working day starts an hour later than the more typical 9am start, finding a space was nigh on impossible. Eventually I had little choice but to accept the monetary loss of using the car park (ironically had I been self-employed, the fee would have been tax-deductable).
I opted to use the car park I used to have a parking pass for. I am nostalgic like that. As I pulled up at the barrier, I fidgeted around in my wallet looking to scrabble together the vast amounts of cash required. But to my delight, as I looked up, the barrier was lifting for me, so I was able to simply drive in for free. The man in the booth must have remembered my face as someone who has a parking pass and didn’t even bother to check whether it was up to date! Not that I’m complaining or anything. It is refreshing for these entries to finish with something positive rather than being the miserable grumble-fest it usually is. If only the Inland Revenue had the same attention for detail as the Wolverhampton Car Parks staff, then maybe everyone could have a happy April 1st.
