I used to think that tax is boring. Long before description of my chosen career became a conversation stopper at social gatherings (….”A Tax Accountant? How interesting! Please excuse me – I must go and say hello to my mother-in-law/bank manager/friend’s cat”), the BBC had at least once a year robbed the younger generation of the hour allocated to Children’s TV in favor of infantile politicians talking about the Budget and hikes in income tax, national insurance, duty on tobacco, fuel and alcohol as well as the silent killer, value added tax. What a yawn!

In 2011, well into a long and, at times, immensely satisfying career in international taxation that had taken me to ubiquitously windowless hotel meeting rooms around the globe, it occurred to me that perhaps the time had come to make my contribution to the removal of that slur on our profession.

This blog  seeks to be informative while not taking itself too seriously – I picture it being read in the middle of the day while taking a break for coffee. It does not replace the need for anybody really interested in getting to the bottom of a particular topic to wade into the depths of the excellent, if sometimes heavy, literature available.

My hope has always been that interest in Tax Break would spread beyond tax professionals, although – as we lot always point out – everything included in this blog is only for general information purposes and should not be relied on as a substitute for obtaining specific (and, probably, very expensive) advice from suitably qualified professionals.

Oh, and before I forget, any thoughts and opinions I express on this blog are my private thoughts and opinions and do not necessarily represent the thoughts and opinions of any organizations with which I am, or have been, associated.

For anyone interested, there are hundreds of posts spanning the last decade or more which can be accessed below.