It’s been a while – but great to hear from Lehan Winifred Ramsay.
Lehan’s Gift
24 Wednesday Jun 2015
Posted in Bands at the Pig's Arms, Lehan Winifred Ramsay
24 Wednesday Jun 2015
Posted in Bands at the Pig's Arms, Lehan Winifred Ramsay
It’s been a while – but great to hear from Lehan Winifred Ramsay.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I’m just not convinced that Osaka is the place to negotiate my taxes. Not after watching Junzo Itami. I’m up to the bit where they fill Mister Gondo’s friend Mister Ninagawa’s coffee cup with salt at the tax office to make him angry. He breaks it, they call the police. What a tactic.
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Seems it just isn’t a good month to be talking to the Tax Office.
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Love it. One of my bus buddies has Armenian heritage.
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Of course the reprisal for that agility will likely be great and even now I am feeling a little regretful that I did not make it to the half hour.
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But it was telephone and I set myself the task of not repeating myself and not asking to be put through to anyone else.
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Hi Lehan. I really feel your dismay and frustration with the seemingly arbitrary and random ”tax system’ you face. And it’s bad enough when one has to confront these uncaring bastards within one’s own language and culture – but for you it must be horrendous.
As you know, I’m a billionaire recluse and my last years tax payments would pay for two small cars – or sustain two pensioner couples. It makes it almost not worthwhile going to work – that’s only ATO tax – let’s not forget what we pay to drive a car, buy a house, have the garbage trucked away…
It’s not hard to see why the French Revolution kicked off, is it ?
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Emm, I wish I had a car. I wish I had a car. It would be so lovely to have a car, I think about how I would like to have a car but even if I had a car I could not afford the petrol, or the car registration, or to give that car any maintenance. I wish I had a scooter, but I could not afford to get new glasses so I could drive safely. I sometimes wish I went to cafes, and bought books, and I really wish that I took holidays.
But there is one thing that cheers me up a treat and that is to really stretch out and test my capabilities. Not only did I manage to engage that tax official on the phone in a crowded first floor ward office for a full twenty five minutes explaining to him very clearly and quite respectfully, nee, really quite friendlily how difficult it has been to follow the letter of the law as dictated by the Law Office, but he in the end apologized for it being so complicated that even a Japanese person who had diligently researched would not have been able to tell me to bring the list of documents he has decided to request. That is because he made it up, he is feeling around for some ju-jitsu advantage. I cannot blame him for that. For he is a tax official and I think a very diligent one.
Cue: Enter, the Dragon.
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Lehan, I have been following your taxation stories for a while. The whole system sounds like it is based on nepotism, favouritism, or sheer fraud. I’m like Emmjay, paying a shit load of tax, because I’m at the peak of my powers and unable to form a private tax dodge..ahem I mean company. I still know business people who complain about being not so well off, but the car/phone/internet/morning coffee/gym membership are all tax write offs.
Hope you karate that tax man into next financial year.
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Are you on Twitter??!!
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I’m sorry who are you?
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155 characters? Don’t flatter me.
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I’m studying tax, it’s not interesting to anyone.
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Anyway I think I didn’t mention the last tax thing, that’s why it’s been some time.
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I think I may not have been able to put “the extraction strategies of shady underworld criminal organizations” in any more grammatical forms my Japanese is poor.
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No I just do not seem to be able to get the words “I’m poor discount please” out, I just do not seem to be able to do that. Should the tax department be able to make a skilled assessment of just how much a person should pay and how much a person should pay if they can’t pay or couldn’t pay and should there be one one-stop-office that can look at the negotiations of each negotiator whether it be tax office or tax-payer and say if it is reasonable or not? I think so, is that an unreasonable attitude to have? I don’t think so.
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Hello Em and thankyou for giving me a page for this one, I’ve learned some important things about the tax office but I would just like to say I do not have a problem with paying taxes as such what I mean to say is taxes are good and they are necessary to society and I do not want to have my tax minimized why should I if the system is fair then the taxes are fair and I want to pay them and I will pay them, I am trying to pay them, that is the point here. All the tax offices should be treated fairly, I cannot just going around and pay the ones who roll out the next fancy trick because actually they all have the same extraction manuals. Nor is it reasonable to just thump one on the head and not expect that the next one is not going to pop up with say another jointly-agreed-upon payment slip or bank-account-manipulation that seems perfectly clear but look it is important to know if this is the kind of treatment metered out to every citizen who does the right thing or if this is a special thing I certainly do not expect to be given any special treatment in this regard, if everyone can expect to have the unmitigated attention of a tax official then of course I must learn how to oblige.
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That poor lady was forced to listen to some very reasonable discussion of the shortcomings of the tax system for forty minutes before she managed to clearly enunciate that I had the wrong department and for that I feel remorse.
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