Oh, the fun we have at CW Towers!
When we’re not beavering away with all sorts of accountancy-related work, we sometimes treat ourselves to a well-deserved game of inter-departmental (and extremely competitive) I Spy.
The most recent episode was no less fiercely fought, descended into a somewhat passionate debate, and almost resulted in someone having their solar-powered calculator hidden in a bottom drawer.
And all because the person whose turn it was had a window to look out of.
Usually, in a game of I Spy, being the only person with a view to the outside world can give someone an unfair advantage. Although, in this case, what they saw complicated matters more than anyone could ever have imagined.
“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with, er, ‘C’. I think.
No, hang on. ‘V’. No. Forget that, it’s definitely ‘C’. Probably.”
Guesses ranged from carrot and cauliflower (it was market day), to calculator (even though we’ve already had that 17 times before), to see-saw (please, don’t ask) and Chippenham.
Then, what’s normally a fairly breezy affair became much less so when the person triumphantly declared, “No, it’s a car! I still… think.”
At which point, 14 people were huddled around a small window overlooking the street.
“That’s not a car!” someone challenged. “Well, not according to HMRC!”
“Yes, it is!” cried the other person defensively.
And that’s when the wheels came off…
(For the record, there have been 3 recent appeals by HMRC to examine whether vehicles supplied to employees were vans or cars. This is because the categorisation of a vehicle supplied to an employee significantly affects the income tax liability for the employee as well as the national insurance contributions for the employer.)
So, apart from allowing innocuous office games to become too riotous, the moral of the story is that, sometimes, a window and a bit of HMRC knowledge can be dangerous.
Which is why, for health and safety reasons, we’re not going to play I Spy for a while.
No, the next game we have lined up is the fun and fast-paced ‘If I were a muppet, what sort of muppet would I be.’
That should be interesting.
Until next month...
