BOO!!

[owlice]

Did I scare you?

[Beyond]

Nope!!

[owlice]

Dang it!

[owlice]

*knock knock knock*

"Hello... we're here from the IRS Audit Team; may we come in, please?"

[Beyond]

Ha-ha, still didn't scare me. I don't have taxable income.

[Nitpicker]

When I lived and worked in the US (for about four years around the turn of the century) I was advised by everyone to fear the IRS. So each year I attended to my US tax returns with diligence. But when I returned to Oz, there was an overlap period of about two weeks at the beginning of a new financial year, where I didn't bother to lodge a tax return -- I simply tapped my ruby slippers together and went home, thinking nothing of it (on the way, I tested positive for traces of explosives at LAX, just a few months after 911, but that is another fun story). Then a few years later, a letter arrived in my mailbox in Oz. It was from the IRS and they had tracked me down! The letter informed me sternly, that I needed to lodge a tax return for the missing two week period. As it happened, I was just planning a short trip back to the US for fun, and I became worried that I might experience trouble getting into the country if the IRS had this dangling above me. So, with some difficulty, I gathered up all the information and forms and sent in my tiny little tax return and mailed it off. Then I booked my flight and had a nice little holiday in Colorado and New York. Back again in Oz, one pleasant afternoon a year or so later, another letter arrived from the IRS. This one contained a check (cheque) from the US Government for about US$5000. What neither I, nor the IRS had initially realised, was that the short two-week period coincided with the payment to me of all the superannuation (401k) I had accrued in my four years working in the US. And because it had occurred in a financial year of only two-weeks (in the US), my taxable income for that year was otherwise negligible, and the initial 401k payout had therefore been too heavily taxed, according to the IRS. My pleasant afternoon suddenly became somewhat more pleasant, and with the pathetic exchange rate at the time, I nearly doubled my windfall in real money. So, thank you IRS.

[geckzilla]

That's a lot of Tim Tams.

[Nitpicker]

Sure was, but it wasn't like the good old days:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_ ... rafficking

... The colony, like many British territories at the time, was short of coins, and rum soon became the medium of trade. The officers of the Corps were able to use their position and wealth to buy all the imported rum and then exchange it for goods and labour at very favourable rates, thus earning the Corps the nickname "The Rum Corps". ...

Click to view full size image

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/origi ... 60af59.jpg

[Beyond]

I've never seen a 'Tim Tam'.

[Beyond]

Owlice, you're just too nice to scare anybody... except spammers, when they hear the clicking together of your talons when they've been spotted.

[orin stepanek]

Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Boo!

Boo who?

Why are you crying?