For a number of years I said I was working on a book called The Joy of Tax. However the immediacy of campaigning and the specific demands of particular and quite focussed projects got in the way. And I also need to write The Courageous State first.
However, yesterday I signed a contract to write a book with that title. Like The Courageous State this is a book that's going to be written in a hurry. The first draft is due at the end of September and the final text by the end of October. Publication is planned for next March. Transworld - a part of Random House - are my publisher. Random House published Over Here and Under Taxed.
What this means is that there are a lot of words to write in a short time. However, to put it in context, there will probably be more words put on this blog between now and the end of October than will go into the book.
So, what's it all about? Effectively it is a manifesto for tax reform. I think we have got to the point where tax campaigns have fundamentally changed perceptions on tax avoidance, tax evasion, tax havens, corporate abuse and much else. But, what we have not, I think, yet done is put tax where it really belongs, which is at the heart of the policy agenda across the whole range of social and economic issues that it impacts on. I believe that proper tax policy has the power to transform society, and so lives. That's what I think the Joy of Tax is.
But if you'll excuse me I need to go and explain why. There are only about 60,000 words to go.
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Let me be one of the first to say this is excellent news, Richard. But I have to say the timetable is pretty ambitious. By comparison, last Thursday I submitted the final handover draft of a 22K word postgrad block for a new module. It took me the best part of seven weeks to write, including dealing with all the revisions/comments/suggestions from critical readers, and probably another two to three to research. Given this blog, little or no research is in order I’d guess but still 10 weeks is going some. Anyway, given your capacity for writing blogs I’m sure you’ll do it. And no doubt they have someone at Transworld who can spot those typos 🙂
Incidentally, I’m just getting to the end of the other Richard’s (Brooks) book, The Great Tax Robbery. I’d like to suggest that before reading the Joy of Tax everyone who reads this blog – and indeed anyone who has an interest in a fair, equitable and just society – should read The Great Tax Robbery as it will the contextualise what you have to say. In short, if more people understood the extent to which the rich and big business, and the lakeys who act on their behalf, have systematically undermined HMRC and tax policy in the UK for their own interests, but to the cost of medium and small businesses and everyone else, support for a call to arms such as the Joy of Tax would become widespread. It might then have some impact on our cowardly Labour politicians (though as Ed Balls was complicit in the development of this situation, I very much doubt on him).
Ivan
I am slightly daunted …. But the adrenalin is kicking in
I would add there is other work to do apart from the book too….
I’d also agree re Richard’s book
Best
Richard
Last Thursday? So much for all these people who complain that teachers and lecturers have twelve weeks off a year. Hope it goes well, as indeed, Richard’s book goes well.
”…if more people understood the extent to which the rich and big business, and the lakeys who act on their behalf, have systematically undermined HMRC and tax policy in the UK for their own interests, but to the cost of medium and small businesses and everyone else…”
That right there is exactly what needs to happen, followed by politicians with the integrity to step up and offer an alternative to the last 3.5 decades of trickle down dishonesty we have had to endure.
Will you following the menu format of The Joy of Cooking – and that other one?
What position do you want me to take?
Good luck with the book, Richard! I wish you every success with it, and I shall certainly be buying a copy as soon as it become available.
Thanks
1,600 words in…..
58,400 to go