Tax avoidance for the layman

The powers that be and their useful idiot lapdogs are always bleating on about tax avoidance and how people should 'pay their fair share. Of course it's always other people they want to make pay more tax, the so called 'rich'. They would never consider writing a cheque from thewir own account and firing it off to the Inland Revenue. Bloody hypocrites

Me? I think it's our moral duty to pay as little tax as possible. Give the Government as little as possible to piss up the proverbial wall. Folks like me cannot deny the Government millions in tax, only a token amount, but every little helps

There are many ways of achieving this to a certain extent. Most of us do not work for ourselves or run companies (DP excepted and he has done good things to keep his money out of the grabbing hands) we earn a wage and can only do little things to minimise our tax outlay.

I brew my own beer, Leg-Iron grows his own tobacco and others buy their baccy abroad.

Many things we purchase though, not just the tobacco and booze, come with a tax take to the government.

We pay VAT at twenty percent on most purchases. Somebody creates, markets and sells a product, we put up the money to buy it and the government get twenty percent of the purchase price for doing bollocks all...which they then waste.

VAT is only charged on new items, not second hand. I live by second hand stuff, in fact if I got burgled and all my stuff got nicked I would be far better off because my insurance company would replace it all for shiny new things. I only go for stiff home security because my cats are at home alone during the day and Mrs Bucko works shifts

Apart from the telly, I don't think me and Mrs Bucko own a piece of furniture that wasn't given to us by somebody else.

The telly is nice but even that was second hand. We bought it from a chap with a computer shop up the street who sells mainly PCs and laptops. They're all second hand and his business isn't big enough to be subject to VAT.

We've actually bought a number of items off that chap but unfortunately he was burgled and they took everything. His insurance wasn't quite as good as mine and he isn't there any longer.

Buying second hand and not needing to have the latest of everything is step number one. Step number two is when something goes wrong,

Fix it!

Why do people keep throwing stuff in the bin when it packs up? We have become a nation of people who replace rather than repair.

I bought Mrs Buckos laptop from that unfortunate chap up our street. That later on packed in. Now it was only second hand and I could have bought another second hand one to replace it - no VAT, but instead I got it fixed.

Now I can fix any desktop PC. I can figure out what is wrong and fix or replace the defective part, but I have very little knowledge of laptops so this one had to go to the shop. Darwen PCs on Duckworth St if you are interested.

The chap tested it an told me it needed a new inverter. Now I have no idea what an inverter is but for thirty five quid it was a lot cheaper than buying even a second hand replacement laptop.

In the end I did a deal with him and exchanged an old desktop tower for the laptop repair - no VAT and not even any money. He will make more money from that tower than I could and I didn't have to pay for the fix. No money even changed hands.

Sometimes, if you ask, you do get.

Our washing machine started leaking and I fixed it with a bit of electrical tape. I didn't expect it to last but it's still going strong now. How much does a new washing machine cost? Having said that, how much would it have cost to get a man in to fix it?

I fixed our central heating boiler too. Admittedly it was a very minor problem, but while I was Googling it I realised that more complex problems are also fairly simple to fix with the right instructions and a bit a patience.

I've spent time listening to a colleague at work screaming down the phone at some poor gas engineer about her knackered boiler. She obviously doesn't realise that in winter every buggers boiler is going tits up.

You do need to be a registered gas engineer to fix other peoples boilers though. That's why it's so expensive. The government licenses the engineers and makes them pay for the privilege.

There are many things we can fix ourselves and we just don't know it. Many people would not know where to begin if they had a fault on a printed circuit board. These boards are in most electrical items and if they have a fault the item packs in. In most cases a printed circuit board cannot be repaired but if say there is a crack in it. the contacts can be bridged with a bit of solder. Far cheaper than buying a new telly.

In the age of Google and the web, instructions for fixing most items are there to be found, you just have to look.

Take cars as an example. Modern cars are not designed to be fixed. The parts that pack in are just supposed to be replaced, and more often than not, at great expense. Most modern mechanics can't figure out a fault until they have hooked the car up to a computer.

I drive older cars, mainly Fords, and they are so easy to fix it's unbelievable. I don't have breakdown cover, I just keep a good toolkit in the boot.

I don't know why anyone would want to buy a new car anyway. None of them have any character.

If you want to avoid paying out and financing our glorious leaders whims and hobby horses, stay away from new goods as much as you can. And you can.

And the next time something breaks, don't instantly throw it in the bin, ask yourself if you can fix it.

I bet you can.