The Aardvark Blog

Wonderful Royal Ballet, less than wonderful politicians
28/01/2016

Tuesday night found the Aardvarks in Tenbury Wells at the wonderful Regal Cinema, for the live screening of their Ashton programme of 'Rhapsody' and 'Two Pigeons'. In the first part of the programme Natalia Osipova was truly extraordinary - her upper body gracefulness and the speed of her movement are exceptional. The second part of the programme 'Two Pigeons' is just such a charming and insightful work. Just a fantastic evening, and the cinema itself with its italianate decoration and art deco exterior and foyer, adds to the whole experience.

Today I have had the less enjoyable experience of reading a reply from a local MP to my email about the proposed changes  to small business tax reporting. This is the kind of issue that sounds as dull and dry as any subject can, yet within a few years it has the potential to massively increase the administrative burden for all those running a small business or registered as self-employed. If you fall into either of these categories I would urge you to get involved in the debate - lest you find yourself with massively increased accountancy costs. My favourite part of the letter was the paragraph that said: 'Businesses will use software that updates their tax account as part of their ordinary day-to-day activity'. This seems to imply that all the work will be magically done by the software itself  (I have in mind the scene from 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' when Merlin uses his wand to do all the housework). Strangely I don't think that this magical software exists.

For a stockholding business like ourselves, a key element to working out profits is the cost of our stock, and this is not a calculation which can be automatically worked out at the touch of a button. I forsee great trouble ahead on this, once people wake up to what is involved. The problem is that by that point it may well be too late.