Taxman!

"There's one for you, nineteen for me.."
So George Harrison wrote, before I was old enough to worry about Income Tax.
Go on...have a listen.

Actually, it was a long time before I did have to worry about Income Tax, because until 2008 I'd always worked for some employer or other and had all my tax deducted at source. So having to keep accounts and set it all out every January for these last four years still seems a bit strange.

But I've learned on the way. I've been submitting my return a year in arrears - and leaving it as late as possible by doing it online at the very end of January. I was most indignant last year when HMRC demanded a payment "on account". I eventually worked out that this must mean "money up front", because I'd been earning money for nine months of the current tax year, which of course had to be taxed, and this was Mr Taxman's way of estimating what I might owe him. I have resolved to catch up with this, so I shall make another return on April 6th for the year 2012-2013.

I really want to clear the financial decks because I am retiring from Hereford Cathedral Choir at the end of March - Easter Day, as it happens - so one source of income will cease from then, but on the 'plus side' I shall have my weekends free, like normal people do, and I shall be able to spend more of my weekdays teaching, advertising and web-geeking without having to look at the watch to be in time for Evensong!

"Retiring from..." makes me sound terribly decrepit and incapable. Before anyone comments on that, I'd like to say "I'M NOT!" Or at least, I don't feel it - and it's how you feel that counts. It's just that I've done this cathedral singing at Hereford for just over 36 years and I really think it's long enough - and I want to go before someone tells me I have to go!


Colin

Annus horribilis

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Whoops! Happy Christmas and Happy New Year, Happy Epiphany and Happy Candlemas, Happy Queen's Accession......which brings us up to date with February 6th. I'm sure I must have missed some other festivals in other cultures in the time since I last "blogged" back in November last year.

I wish I had the excuse that I've been so busy with the computer tutoring, but it's been a very thin time so far. Until 2012, Autumn, Winter and early Spring had been my boom seasons, with March the "boom month". I've never been coy about publishing my figures on this blog, so this is what they look like:

Income from lessons in 2011 on the left, income from 2012 lessons on the right. March 2012 was the best for the year, but not quite making £1000. And there's an obvious decline all through the year. Click on it to get The Big Picture...

• Is this evidence of The Recession?
• Is my advertising failing?
• Have I been so successful that Hereford now knows all it needs to know about computers?

Having followed our government's advice that We Should All Tighten Our Belts, I realised that there wasn't much more that I could do to alleviate The Recession, but I did think seriously about my second bullet-point.

Perhaps my advertising was getting stale? So I wrote a newsletter to all my clients, past and present, although at any time a "past" client could phone and make a new booking. And this was the aim of the letter - to jog the memory banks and suggest that as Christmas was approaching it was a good time to get those address labels done for all those cards. I also included a mention of Windows 8 - in a positive way, you understand - just to say that it would be very different from what you'd seen before - and that My Computer Tutor could help - in a positive way, you understand!

I also had a good long look at my 5cm by 3-column wide advert in the local freeby paper and decided that I'd double the depth to 10cm, which would double the cost, but only have it posted every fortnight.

It certainly catches the eye now!

I was able to double the amount of info it contains and several people have phoned to say that they saw my advert in the paper.

But 'several' hasn't been enough. Maybe people are just as worried about buying a new computer as they are about having computer lessons, so they haven't discovered Windows 8 yet.

Charity

I felt so guilty about not having made a charity donation this year that I walked up to a young lady in Hereford High Town and almost introduced myself! She was representing Concern Universal, our locally-based charity. Yes, I know I've supported them before, but there I was at the end of January and I wanted to get the year off to a charitable start. And so I promised Tia I'd give her a mention on this blog

Colin