|
... or "the Taxman" since it's only HMRC in the UK.
Last week (The Lounge[^]) I got a tax rebate cheque for £1600 for an overpayment Michelle made.
And today the postman delivered another letter ... and I joked to myself "it's probably a demand for £1800 this time!" 
Nope. A demand for £1900 ... 
So now I have to go back through all her bank statements, pay slips, P60's and suchlike (which would have been easier if she's kept them in some form of organisation (or indeed, kept them at all in many cases) to try and work out why HMRC appears to have used the same income to get two wildly different results.
So back to the bank and download the statements. And that's where is gets nasty: I can download in Excel, Quicken, Money, PDF, Text, or CSV. Except ... CSV will only give you the last 12 months, nothing before that. Quicken and Money I don't use; PDF is a PITA to extract data from if you want to manipulate it; Excel is XLS(!) and both XSL and Text are restricted to 600 transactions, but you have no idea how many there might be in a tax year ... 2 a day will take you over that limit!
OK, so monthly downloads in XLS it is (because I can process it in a spreadsheet and directly import it to SQL via SSMS). 53 separate monthly downloads later ... and Excel says the files are "damaged or corrupt" but will open them. SSMS says they are "damaged or corrupt, I'm not touching that!".
Try a couple of Excel to DataTable solutions, and they all say "sod off, that's a bad file"
OK, Text it is another 53 separate downloads ... it's a nice simple format, so processing the text with Regex isn't difficult. Except ... iOK for me, because there are less than 600 transactions per month, but they don't include any form of transaction ID (despite the original bank data guaranteed to have them in some form) so you can't easily spot duplicates if you do have to break a month into smaller parts.
Come on guys! If you have data which uniquely identifies a transaction and you are compiling a transaction report INCLUDE IT! If you have an "industry standard format" like Excel, use the modern version, not one 15 years out of date! Don't restrict the transaction count to an arbitrary number, restrict it to an arbitrary number or the end of a month / week / year whichever is appropriate! And whatever you do, don't add a further length limit to one particular format!
Grrr ... and now back to the financial news ...  Once I've finished converting the text to SQL for analysis / sorting / filtering that is.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
OriginalGriff wrote: Excel says the files are "damaged or corrupt" but will open them
Let me guess - they're an HTML file served with an Excel MIME-type, since so many people seem to think that's the way to generate an Excel file from a website. 
If Excel will open them, you might be able to save them as "real" Excel files, which SSMS might then be able to work with.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
|
|
|
|
|
I'm guessing that is the first thing ChatGPT recommends ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
I just checked with PSPad, and yes - it's HTML ... so the business data is being processed in the Presentation layer rather than the business layer.
Inspires confidence in the bank's developers, doesn't it? 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
Why not give them a call, you'll only have to hang on the line for a few hours. 
|
|
|
|
|
HMRC I'm going to have to, but I want to get all my ducks in a row first ...
The bank? I may be depressed, but I'm not suicidal! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
OriginalGriff wrote: I may be depressed, but I'm not suicidal!
That's good to hear. Line up those ducks and stick to both HMRC AND the Bank. In Her memory.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
|
|
|
|
|
They're a lot better than they used to be Paul - I had an IR35 inspection a few years ago which lasted 4 years - f****ing nightmare
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
|
|
|
|
|
for those of us free from British tyranny (smile) - what's an IR35 Inspection?
ps
If you see a lot of spelling mystakes from me, Opera has gone batcrap crazy with auto suggestions.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
|
|
|
|
|
IR35 is a HMRC taxation ruling which deems contractors who contract to one company all the time to be disguised employees and therefore are subject to National Insurance contributions at the variable rate. Mine was overturned as I had a good accountant supplied my own equipment and had the right of substitution
edit
just read your other post
Quote: The British government, like the US government lives on the middle class, and they DESPISE small business
Bang on the money Charlie
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
modified 13-Aug-24 4:03am.
|
|
|
|
|
Interesting, the IRS works very hard at classifying independents as employees. When I started contracting, the contract was very clear that I could set my own hours and provide my own equipment. Once I started my own corp, I stopped working about it.
The tax people are ALWAYS lookoing for ways to raise revenue. It's Biblical 
The two sad parts: 1) we cannot audit them, and 2) no matter how much money they "collect", the government always spends more.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
|
|
|
|
|
tax people are generally drones (you Brit's have serious issues with your government over there...) same as us. We gave up tea for coffee.
The US IRS has been trying to fix the core tax software of the country. Every damn decade it fails. It needs a complete re-write starting with deleting congress and the IRS (I'm an advocate for a hard look at the simple tax, but I digress).
Decades ago, President Bush pushed through some tax reform and part of it was a $800 ($1k) tax credit per child for families. Now, at the time, I had a Mongol hoard (no offense to Mongols in here), so, I did my taxes expecting north of a $7k refund. That's a lot of food. 2 months later I get a letter - you owe us $8k. Now, I'm not an idiot, I know how to do my taxes, I don't require rocket scientists to help me. Called them up and a very nice lady took my call.
She: how my I help you?
Me: well, I got this letter in the mail....
She: typing... oh yes, you made an error on your return.
Me: I think not, but pray tell what might that be? (side note: the $$ demand made 0 mention of the error. Dicks).
She: Oh, you've overstated your dependents, and we don't have SSNs for them.
Me: Thinking of the hoard at home, Umm, I think not. What SSNs are you missing?
She: I can't tell you.
Me: Laughing, I guess we're at an impass. Umm, can I read off the SSNs I filed and you tell me if you have them?
She: That will work...
Me: Yada, yada (apparently the IRS has access to SSNs...)
She: That's weird, I see them all now. Let me fix this.
Boom, check a week later.
The next year it happened again, except this time I got an IRS bitch with an attitude. Don't tell me how to do my job, that bs. Fine, you do your job. 2 weeks later I got a check.
The next year, it happened yet again. Thankfully I did not get the IRS bitch this time, I got some guy who was willing to listen. I explained to him this was the 3rd year in a row.
Him: Okay, we have a problem, since this is not supposed to happen. I have a team meeting tomorrow morning, and I'll bring it up. Call you back.
The next day, the guy calls me back, and he cannot stop laughing. Now, we all know software here, so he admitted he thought he had figured the problem out. Because of the large # of dependents I had, my return was automatically flagged for review. It pops up on the reviewer's pc where they promptly fail my return. Why? Because the default page only shows the first 3 dependents. THEY NEVER PUSHED ON THE DROP DOWN ARROW showing all of the other SSNs. Mind you at the time, I had 9 children. We both had a good laugh and it never happened again.
My point is that the British IRS or whatever you call them probably have sucky software. Don't be cowed, make them prove it. Had a friend's dad tell me, "If you're not audited every 3 years, you aren't claiming enough deductions."
The British government, like the US government lives on the middle class, and they DESPISE small business. See small businesses can write off expenses that working people normally cannot. Food for thought.
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
|
|
|
|
|
OriginalGriff wrote: Come on guys! If you have data which uniquely identifies a transaction and you are compiling a transaction report INCLUDE IT! If you have an "industry standard format" like Excel, use the modern version, not one 15 years out of date! Don't restrict the transaction count to an arbitrary number, restrict it to an arbitrary number or the end of a month / week / year whichever is appropriate! And whatever you do, don't add a further length limit to one particular format!
I pointed all of that out to them. I suggested upgrades for years. I even wrote the tickets, added the designs, the breakdowns and estimates.
But the architect and manager kept saying that no one actually uses that stuff and we really need more razzle dazzle for facebook.
------
I really have worked on multiple systems that would fail all the time because the original designer never even considered the possibility that a data dump might be too large at some point.
|
|
|
|
|
I am trying to get rid of stuff so the kids won't have to. It would be so much easier if I could just round file stuff instead of reading, fondling and remembering. I came across an old Pocket PCRef book, 10th edition: year 2000. I must have purchased at least 5 different versions. Alas, I only kept the latest, they are no longer published. It has such useful information as Hayes AT commands, a table of powers of 2 up to 64 and old hard drive jumper specs. Brings back a lot of memories, some good. They are no longer published but the publisher has handbooks for general pocket ref and handyman ref. No archives of old PCRef, I have seen them elsewhere.
So, why did I have to open it? Day before yesterday. Oh, BTW, anyone interested in an original Pi? Or the hardware and maintenance manual for the IBM Proprinter (1986)?
>64
It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
|
|
|
|
|
Years ago when I first started as a computer operator I wanted to learn programming. So I borrowed one of the handbooks and took it home and transcribed it into a notebook of my own. I always regret losing that manual, which showed all the machine code instructions for the system, including a clever register that could calculate in imperial measurements - £sd being the most important.
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: Hayes AT commands
That brings back some (now vague) memories!
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
|
|
|
|
|
Oh my, If I looked hard enough thru "things I have to keep", I know I could find an old IBM 360 green or blue reference card. EBCDIC here we come.
|
|
|
|
|
Trade you a cathode follower vacuum tube! Will add a flow chart stencil.
>64
It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
|
|
|
|
|
I still have a pile of the IBM 370 Yellow reference cards, which I occasionally reference. How about those green plastic flowchart stencils... or the HIPO stencils, which are not as well known?
|
|
|
|
|
I still have my first "computer". A K&E "Log Log duplex Decitrig Slide Rule". Number N4081
Cost a fortune back then.
The manual is very yellowed, > 100 pages
Slide rules came into general use, in the US, back in 1910.
No, I wasn't there. 
>64
It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
|
|
|
|
|
I wish my father would have done the same. He left me a garage and three sheds full of crap. I have to admit I've loved and used some, a very little, but the vast majority goes to the dump. It's a lot of work. We should not do this to our survivors. Also, I think we enjoy the little gems like the PCRef, that our kids won't recognize. We should follow your example and clean our own house while we can, and maybe enjoy a few gems of our own.
If I follow your example and my own advice, my last box of stuff will have my 1984 intel LAN Components User's Manual. I spent a lot of time in those years building boards around the 82586 Ethernet Coprocessor. Way too much fun.
|
|
|
|
|
There are at east a coule of sites out there like User Manuals[^] and ManualsLib[^] that I think you could donate to if you're up for it. (Google manuals, should be at the top.)
|
|
|
|
|
Nothing like my hardback TI TTL databook. (1984?)
|
|
|
|
|
I can relate, I lost a lot of my 70's & 80's historical computer software and documention in a fire back in 2008. A lot of it I've never found replacements. I would love to peruse some of it today. But for a lot of it, it wasn't realy worth the space. A time amchine and a scanner would be nice.
I've have a saying that applies.
Nostalgia can be a prison if you let it.
|
|
|
|
|
theoldfool wrote: instead of reading, fondling and remembering...Brings back a lot of memories, some good.
Pack it into boxes. Then haul the boxes up and down the stairs every month. The number of trips will allow you to objectively measure how fond you really are of that stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
