By Dave Hickey
I’ve written before on how I have ‘returned to my roots’ at DHKN after a gap of 38 years.
I didn’t realise that a part of me physically remained here until DHKN’s Robert Lohan, Director of Tax Planning, came into my office looking for an old tax reference book. It turns out it was my copy of what was then our main tax guide from 1982/83, complete with some of my notes (in red pen) on tax reliefs, etc. My name is written on the top left of the cover.
Seeing it made me feel a little like Marty McFly but he only went back 30 years! This Summary of Taxation is over 40 years in use and still of some service – a bit like me!
Back then, I was a bit of a tax expert which is why I had my own copy of this precious resource. There were few other tax reference sources at the time, unlike now where DHKN’s library takes up one wall of my office.
Until 2002, the tax year ended on 5th April which is why this book is for 1982/83.
This was the infamous John Bruton budget in February 1982 which proposed charging VAT on children’s shoes and which led directly to the fall of the Coalition government led by Garret Fitzgerald.
(It also introduced VAT on accounting and audit services for the first time, which caused much greater offence to many in the profession at the time.)
Finally, it was a time when inflation was at 17.15% (down 3.23% on the previous year) and mortgage interest rates were 16.25%.
The high inflation and rising interest rates today have very different causes from those of the early 1980’s and we’re in a very different economic position. Nevertheless, individuals and businesses need to find ways to overcome these challenges and the 2023 budget due in less than two weeks can play an important role in that.
DHKN will continue to work with our clients and colleagues in 2022 and beyond to help them address these challenges, with forward thinking tax planning just as our predecessors (me among them) did in 1982.
