Dreadful Nonsense

Day One of my new job. The motto on the desk calendar that I have inherited from the last secretary reads “Set aside a day when everyone’s out and give the house a big spring clean. You'll earn a fistful of Bonus Points and give yourself an all-over workout at the same time.” I now understand why my life has been so difficult up until now: I haven’t been following the rules.

New jobs are always easy on the first day, so I refuse to judge it by that, and will instead comment at the end of the week. Briefly, though, it seems to have given something of a favourable first impression. I’m not really that bothered with it all, you see, because I’ve already got another job. I’ve gone from being unemployed and slightly panicking to having two jobs and having to decide between them. Fabulous.

While I tackle my happy dilemma, I’ll let you all get on with another bit of homework, in the occasional series I like to call Sharon Takes The High Ground. Click on the lovely picture below and you’ll be taken to www.vatcampaign.com.

A brief explanation then, for those of you still listening: Irish charities lose 63 million Euro in VAT to the Irish government each year (proportionately 21% more than businesses in the commercial sector). Unlike the commercial sector, charities cannot reclaim the VAT they pay on vat-able goods and services which means that for every euro they spend, an additional 21 cent returns to the government as VAT. For some charities the VAT bill represents a very high proportion of all the money they generate from fund-raising. This can be a crippling experience and needs to be addressed.

Of course, there's an election coming up. That’s where the fun starts.

The site has collected the email addresses of election candidates country-wide and would like you to sign the online petition and a form letter, which will be emailed to the candidates in your area with almost no effort from you. I know a lot of you out there are Irish, so even if you aren’t resident in Ireland, but importantly haven’t transferred your vote to where you are – you’re still listed on the electoral register.

So go, fill out the form. It takes less than a minute to do, and will count as your good deed for the day.

This entry was posted on 22 April 2002 at 9:19 pm. 0 comments

Dreadful Nonsense

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