International Banking

I thought I had made out pretty well working in Ireland, only having 2% deducted in taxes the whole time I was there. However, I had heard that I was entitled to a FULL refund of any taxes I paid as long as I could gather the appropriate paperwork and send it into the Irish Revenue Agency. Long story short, I was unable to track down all my paperwork, but found a company that would do it for me, for an undisclosed percentage of the refund. Having nothing to lose I signed on and put them to work. After 4 months of slow progress I received a cheque for €216. Unfortunately the only place that would cash a foreign check here in Scotland was by bank, which has a processing fee of £20. I didn't have much of a choice, so I agreed to the charge. Then I got a bill from TaxBack.com for €60.50 for their services (I thought this would have been deducted from the refund, but I assumed wrong). Conversing with TaxBack I learned that the only way I could pay this was with a money transfer from my UK bank account to their Euro account in Ireland; another £10 charge. All in all my C$325 rebate netted me C$170 - 47% taken in processing fees. Brutal.
In hindsight it would have been cheaper to fly to Ireland for the weekend and cash it there. Speaking of banking in Ireland; I have this account there, but have no idea how much money I have in it. They wouldn't let me have internet banking because I wasn't a permanent resident of Ireland, and I cannot check the balance using bank machines outside of Ireland (just the way the machines work). My plan now is to withdraw money from the account until it says I have insufficient funds and take the loss of the few Euro left it in.

Unfortunately I don't have the same good graces with the UK government, as there is no way to side-step the tax man here. Socialized medicine (of which I am only entitled to in emergency situations) takes 11%, while 22% more goes to general national tax. Luckily I am still regarded as a low earner for the time being and have only been paying 7.5% so far, but I foresee that rising in the near future. The fact that the tax on products and services is 21% (VAT - value-added tax, which is worked into the price of everything) and Council Tax (garbage/schools/fire/police) is around C$125/month, I have no idea how people afford to pay Stamp Duty on major purchases. [Stamp Duty is a fee that the government takes in addition to regular taxes on all vehicle or property sales/trades at a rate of up to 9% the value of the transaction]

My recent life in about a minute

Nothing much has been going on, but there have been a few points of slight interest so here it is.

Last week the fire alarm in the flat upstairs was going off for ages and eventually a firetruck showed up outside. Then another. And Another. I was at the window checking out all the commotion when 3 firemen unlocked and opened our door, walking right it. They asked if this was flat #4, but I directed them to the alarm going off upstairs and they were on their way. I was just a bit surprised that they have a skeleton key for all the flats.

Just after all that finished up I was in the kitchen washing my dinner dishes when I heard a blood-curdling scream come from Hazels room. I dropped what I was doing and ran over to her room expecting to see her partially dismembered judging from the shrillness of her yells. She came running past me in the opposite direction, pushing me out of the way screaming, "MOUSE! MOUSE!" hahaha
I took a look around the room but couldn't find Mickey anywhere. He has since made a few appearances, but it is fairly sporadic. I said we should just get a regular trap, but the other flatmates were having none of that. They all hate the mouse, but don't want to harm it at all...

Work is the same as always, but we moved offices on Friday so there should be a bit of a change come Monday. Hopefully things will stay fairly social - there is nothing worse than working in an office where everyone just sits at their desk without saying a word all day.

Yesterday Donna, Hazel and I drove out to one of the beaches in East Lothian and walked around a bit. It was the first really nice day we have had in quite a while so we figured we would try to make the most of it. When we made it half-way around the beach we found a guy pacing back and forth on the rocks while his boat bashed against the rocks. Eventually he took the plunge, untied it and tried to push it onto the sand bar. I would like to say that I did the selfless thing and rushed into the water with him to help, but that just wasn't the case. It was getting pretty cold with the wind blowing and I can just imagine the water was freezing. Eventually a better man than myself came by, stripped down and helped the guy out - they eventually got it positioned in a reasonable spot.

I went out with a few friends to one of the University bars last night and am lined up to play in a poker tournament tonight.

I'll try to keep things a bit more updated as time goes on, but as you can see, not all that much has been going on.

There are a few new pictures HERE
Note the little kids wearing snow suits and mittens to play in the sand - there were at least 6 other kids up to the age of 6 dressed like this getting seriously muddy.