SKAT in
Danish can mean few things. In every-day situations SKAT for “darling” and SKAT
for “taxes” dominate all the other interpretations. Hearing “darling” is always
a melody to ones’ ear; however, “taxes” might evoke a hurricane in ones’ blood.
March – the
month when Danish government has re-calculated tax-schemes for everyone in the
country who has any income. And this is the “pay-back” time for either a tax
office or an individual. I guess this is a good joke for everyone, who knows
what is going on behind the lines of weird tax-names. My observation proves to
see very many confused faces when looking to the yearly tax-sheets and it
actually counts for both: danes and foreigners.
Beginning
of March appears to be tensed month. Just like Christmas – the reaction to the
“newsletter” shall reflect whether one was a good or a bad person that year, this
time is going to come despite the fact you are ready or not, people talk about
it all the year, everyone is excited and eager to know what are they going to
get this year and only few can truly explain how did this actually happen.
What
happens in most cases is that right after everybody has used their chance to
“sit on Santas’ lap” – hold the line for hours on the virtual queue on the due
day, the exciting moment comes out “unwrapping the gift”. And just like every
kid, we think we have behaved and shall be rewarded for our efforts and with a
big smile on our faces look intensively to the numbers in the screen.
Regardless
of the content inside we will let our family and/or closest friends know about
it and raise discussions on what did we or we did not do to deserve such
reward. In sadder cases we will turn to those little elfs, also known as
tax-office-workers, to seek for reasoning and we will do our best to prove them
that we were supposed to be listed under column “the good kids”. However, how
much can an elf do; they are there just to collect, wrap in and deliver
everything what was earned within the year. One should not be surprised to hear
the following: “This line shows how much we expected you will be giving to us.
This line shows what you gave us. And this is the result. For further
information, please, contact Santa”.
The
question lies now: where to find him? Who is the right person to contact? Is
there somebody who knows all about and exactly how to do it right?
One for
sure, it is working somehow: streets are clean, education and medical care is
for free, administrative offices are working and etc.
So keep it
up. Do follow the salary papers and income sheets. The more you know, the
better prediction you will have and the lesser surprise you will receive.
Next stop –
feriepenge! ;)
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