Income Tax and Wedding Fees - Revision history

Gilesblundell: copyedit; wikify to the extent of reducing how much by one author, lest anyone come along and revise, leaving Steve to take the blame...

2011-11-25T16:09:45Z

copyedit; wikify to the extent of reducing how much by one author, lest anyone come along and revise, leaving Steve to take the blame...

Gilesblundell: rv vandalism / spamming

2011-11-25T16:00:31Z

rv vandalism / spamming

MatildaHarris at 11:30, 14 November 2011

2011-11-14T11:30:35Z

MatildaHarris at 00:35, 31 October 2011

2011-10-31T00:35:19Z

GACJ: Reverted edits by JaydenCollier (Talk) to last revision by GACJ

2011-08-15T20:59:24Z

Reverted edits by JaydenCollier (Talk) to last revision by GACJ

JaydenCollier at 16:51, 15 August 2011

2011-08-15T16:51:09Z

GACJ: Reverted edits by NicholasBradshaw (Talk) to last revision by GACJ

2011-07-17T18:26:27Z

Reverted edits by NicholasBradshaw (Talk) to last revision by GACJ

NicholasBradshaw: /* The System */

2011-07-17T14:05:11Z

The System

GACJ: Reverted to remove spam

2011-07-15T07:46:07Z

Reverted to remove spam

GACJ: Reverted edits by GACJ (Talk) to last revision by ChloeLawson

2011-07-15T07:41:45Z

Reverted edits by GACJ (Talk) to last revision by ChloeLawson

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ===Those Wedding Fees===
-Just in case you’re wondering why I’m writing this, I’d better explain that as well as being a ringer
+Just in case you’re wondering who originally wrote this, he (Steve Coleman) explained that 'as well as being a ringer
 I’m also a money person. I used to be one of the Central Council’s Independent Examiners - what most people
 call, Auditors - and I do a lot of work with ringing and church accounts too. Professionally I also used to be a
 rather senior Inspector of Taxes. So it’s not surprising that among the purely ringing questions people send me,
-I also get a fair few money questions. And it’s those questions that this series is all about.
+I also get a fair few money questions.'
 '''''I’ve just read a most disturbing article about the burgeoning mountain of middle class crime, and I fear I am myself a pebble in that mountain. It’s four years since I started ringing for weddings, yet in all that time I haven’t declared a single wedding fee on my tax return. Small stabs of guilt are niggling me, so if you can give me absolution - or, better still, justification - I’d be really grateful.''''' SW - West Midlands
@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 No trouble with any of those. They’re simple questions with simple answers and most of the other
-questions are just as simple. But when you’ve eliminated all the simple ones, there are four questions left that
+questions are just as simple. But when you’ve eliminated all the simple ones, there are four questions left that need answering.
-need Employment?
 So first, are your wedding fees income from an employment? Are you in some way employed as a bell
@@ Line 53: / Line 54: @@
 prestigious posts, or posts that exist under some form of written constitution - the sort of posts that seem to
 exist whether someone fills them or not. The Master of the Queen’s Horse, for example,
-or the Lord Lieutenant of the County, or the Ringing Master of an Association Closer to the mark, vicars were
+or the Lord Lieutenant of the County, or the Ringing Master of an Association. Closer to the mark, vicars were
 always considered to hold an office - although there’s some doubt about that now - and church organists were looked
 on similarly. So might ringers also be considered to be office holders?
@@ Line 127: / Line 128: @@
 Absolution is yours!
 ==References==

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 So beginning at the beginning, in this country, tax - thank the Lord - is purely a matter of law. There
-are no bribes and [http://www.ghengisfireworks.co.uk/ fireworks] no extortion, and nothing you receive is taxable unless the law says it is.
+are no bribes and no extortion, and nothing you receive is taxable unless the law says it is.
 But good though that is, tax law is unfortunately fantastically complex. The statutes themselves amount
-to several thousand <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.netlook.com.br/ <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">vestidos da moda</span>] pages, whilst the judicial interpretation of all those pages fills dozens of stout volumes.
+to several thousand pages, whilst the judicial interpretation of all those pages fills dozens of stout volumes.
 So if anyone tells you that your question is a simple one, don’t believe them.

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 are no bribes and [http://www.ghengisfireworks.co.uk/ fireworks] no extortion, and nothing you receive is taxable unless the law says it is.
 But good though that is, tax law is unfortunately fantastically complex. The statutes themselves amount
-to several thousand pages, whilst the judicial interpretation of all those pages fills dozens of stout volumes.
+to several thousand <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.netlook.com.br/ <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">vestidos da moda</span>] pages, whilst the judicial interpretation of all those pages fills dozens of stout volumes.
 So if anyone tells you that your question is a simple one, don’t believe them.

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 So beginning at the beginning, in this country, tax - thank the Lord - is purely a matter of law. There
-are no bribes and no extortion, and nothing you receive is taxable unless the law says it is.
+are no bribes and [http://www.ghengisfireworks.co.uk/ fireworks] no extortion, and nothing you receive is taxable unless the law says it is.
 But good though that is, tax law is unfortunately fantastically complex. The statutes themselves amount
 to several thousand pages, whilst the judicial interpretation of all those pages fills dozens of stout volumes.

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 By great good fortune I can give you both. But since, by your own admission, you’re middle class,
-middle aged and - I suspect - a middle brow ringer to boot, you won’t <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.diamondlinks.net <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">link building service</span>] just want an answer, you’ll want an
+middle aged and - I suspect - a middle brow ringer to boot, you won’t just want an answer, you’ll want an
 explanation to go with it.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 a chunk of income must fall into if it’s to be taxable. And that’s because not all income is taxable. Gifts aren’t,
 for example, nor are betting wins or the money you get for your old car when you buy a new one.
-So we have to look at each taxing category in turn and <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.proposable.com/ <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">proposal software</span>] see if wedding fees fall into it.
+So we have to look at each taxing category in turn and see if wedding fees fall into it.
 It’s rather like doing one of those Sunday newspaper puzzles. You ask yourself one question after another and keep ruling things out.
 "Is a wedding fee income from property?" No. "Is it interest on money?" No. "Is it a dividend from an overseas company?" No.
@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 income from sell-employment - often known as Pay as You Please. And once you’ve asked that question, it
 won’t take you a moment to reply, “Of course I’m not employed as a bell ringer.” No ordinary ringer is. There is
-no contract of employment and <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.diamondlinks.net/ <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">link building</span>] nor are there any features of the arrangement which could lead anyone to think
+no contract of employment and nor are there any features of the arrangement which could lead anyone to think
 that an employer/employee relationship exists. Judges have spent a vast amount of time considering what might
 or might not be considered an employment, but they’d take one look at this situation and say the answer’s just

@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 on similarly. So might ringers also be considered to be office holders?
-Well, almost certainly not. In most churches the local band is <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.gumball-machine.com/vending-machines.html <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">vending machines</span>] a vague kind of thing. It has no fixed
+Well, almost certainly not. In most churches the local band is a vague kind of thing. It has no fixed
 size, no terms of appointment and no written or centuries-old constitution. Any tax inspector who tried to pin an
 office on you would be quickly told to spend their time looking at something more sensible.
@@ Line 121: / Line 121: @@
 So if - just remotely if - a tax inspector wants to start taxing your fees - either through your tax return
-or, more likely, by deduction - show them this <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.mycaal.com/ <span style="color:black;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important;background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">loan modification</span>] article. If they still can’t agree, make a politely worded complaint
+or, more likely, by deduction - show them this article. If they still can’t agree, make a politely worded complaint
 and show this article to their boss. And if their boss can’t agree, make an equally polite complaint to their Regional
 Office. That, at least, should sort it.