A lot of the stuff on here of late has been of a slightly less serious stripe than was initially intended. Hey what can you do? Things are moving fast ion the world of money though at the moment. Obviously there is a new government here in Britain now, and the economic policies that they put into place will have an effect on business and personal finance alike.

Much has been made of the coalitions planned raising of the tax free allowance to the ten thousand pound mark.  In fact this won’t be coming into effect until the tax year starting in April 2011.IT is quite surprising to me how few people really understand the tax that they are being asked to pay.

Everybody and everything is taxed. That is just the way of the world, and complaining about it is equally part of the human condition.  As with everything though, knowledge is your friend, not your enemy, and knowing exactly what you will be laying out in tax is essential for proper financial planning.

The tax system is undoubtedly complex. It is that way because over the years successive governments have felt the need to try and pull the wool over the electorates eyes by tinkering with it in arcane ways. there as also been a significant  amount of giving with the one and and taking away with the other.

The only way to know whether you are paying the correct amount of tax is to know what the correct amount of tax you should be p0aying is. If there were just one tax, on say, income, then this would be quite simple. However what with tax-credits, national nsurance, capital gains tax and so on the problem becomes exponentially more complex.

Figuring out what is going on with your personal tax may not be exactly simple or easy, but neither is it impossible. It is very much up to the individual to ensure that the are paying the right amount. If mistakes are being made and you don’t spot them then the tax-man is more than happy to keep the money. There are some useful tax based resources online to help you. In particular investment bank Coutts has  placed this handy guide to tax rates on their website. It would probably be a good idea to bookmark the section on income tax to keep on top of changes as they are brought in.

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The BP rig that failed is continuing to pump toxic oil into the sea in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing that has been tried to sort the mess out seems to be working and recriminations have begun. Obama is under fire for being ‘in the pocket of big oil’. The source of this allegation? None other than former Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Seriously.

For anybody in the Republican party to have the sheer brass neck to through around those kind of allegations is almost beyond belief. Palin, who represents the petro-state Alaska risks offending her own big-oil paymasters if she carries on with talk like this. You think I am making this stuff up? Have a LINK to a respected news source. See?

It really is a horrible mess out there too. Some people are warning that the damage to the delicate wetland  ecosystems could be irreversible. There is some more depressing information on that to be read over here. So who is coming up with anything positive to help the situation? Only it seems, the Russians.

The suggestion coming from certain experts within Russia is to launch a nuclear strike on the area. Again, I am actually being serious and not making this up – have a LINK. The plan would be to blast the area with a thermonuclear explosion. This would, the logic goes, seal the oil well. Apparently this was done before in Russia one time, to put out a fire on a gas rig. I guess at least it would give the residents in the area something else to worry about. And remember when you are booking you holidays, you may need a car with a radiation filter. Not an option which is listed on the average firm’s car hire Florida page.

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• Sarah Palin has more oil spill credibility than you think (trueslant.com)
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• Palin On Rand Paul and the rabid hypocrisy and untruths surrounding the left, Obama & Big Oil (chicagoraysrants.com)
• ABC News Absolves Obama of Oil Spill Blame by Bashing Sarah Palin (newsbusters.org)
• Enough already. Nuke Gulf oil spill, says expert (thestar.com)

Anyone not really excited by the upcoming world cup is probably dead. Or Just wrong. Anyway, it is just around the corner, and this Nike advert is pure genius. You don’t even need to like over-priced sportswear manufactured by child slaves to appreciate this: