flynn002

  ©cartoonstock.com With recent revelations about rich people legally avoiding tax, it seems a good time to tell this story. In late 2013, I received an email telling me that I could potentially save huge amounts in tax on my pension. I thought this must be a particularly sophisticated spam: poverty in the UK was rising fast , and I have high earnings, so why would pension rules be changed to benefit me? But no, I checked it out and it was all legal and above board. All is made clear in this piece *. The phraseology has some gems: I particularly enjoyed 'the appropriate crystallisation event, such as the point of death', but behind all the talk of accrued benefits and recovery tax charges, the message seems to be that the Government had introduced a new measure that would increase the amount of tax paid by rich people, but HMRC had immediately provided a legal means for avoiding this, 'Fixed Protection'. I'm fascinated by the use of language: the word 'protect...

 ©cartoonstock.com Everyone I know is exhausted by email. You can spend a day battling back the incoming tide of messages, but next morning when you wake up, there it is again. Much of it is spam and can be deleted without reading, but it still absorbs attention and energy. But there's plenty of other stuff that sits there in your inbox eyeing you balefully until you respond. People I know divide into two classes: those who have given in and just live with an oppressive burden of 500 unread messages, and those who destroy themselves trying to keep on top of it. The best advice I've read on how to manage the situation is this by Tim Harford , but even obeying his rules only reduces the pain, but does not eliminate it. Is there a solution? I've thought of one. It probably is impossible but I'm going to put it out there and see what you all say. The idea is that there should be a cost to sending email. This seems weird for two reasons:  when email first came out we all lov...