I was going to tell you that 21 years ago today Neil and I were in Athens on our way to a new life in Greece, rather a year in Greece to see how we got on, as that was the original plan. But…
21 years later, I find myself at my PC wrestling with the government’s tax payment system, and that has knocked all interesting and potentially humorous wind from my sails. I will return to our eleven-day journey to Symi tomorrow, and vent some of that wind, which is now steam. Please excuse me for a paragraph or two, but we’ll all feel better afterwards when I will share some random photos because you don’t want to look at photos of my tax return screen. You can’t anyway. I can’t get into it.
It’s yesterday afternoon and I have just spent a good hour trying to pay my tax and failing. It’s all very well providing an online system, Mr Greek Taxman, but when I can access it one day and not the next, when a friend can access it from her PC and find my ‘needs to be paid’ page, and I can’t, and when I’ve tried everything I can think of with no joy, well, I feel inclined to tell you where to insert your returns.
I shan’t, but I shall wait patiently and try again later, which has been my mantra for the past few days. I’ve tried at four in the morning when the system surely can’t be overloaded with grateful taxpayers clamouring to send you all their hard-earned loot, and I’ve tried at random times through the day – siesta time included – in all manners possible, only to receive the same message about a system error, or an incorrect password when it isn’t incorrect. I managed to get in two days ago with no hassle, but my bill wasn’t ready. Now it allegedly is, I appear to be defeated at the gates every time.
Yes, cookies cleared, add-ins disabled, VPN disabled, and all security put on pause (which is a bit worrying, but you never know), I’ve tried on two browsers, tried doing it standing on my head, copied the username and password direct, copied it via notepad, written it in by hand (played havoc with the screen), typed it, shouted it in two languages, but still, the government clearly do not want my tax payment.
It’s odd. I can’t get into Neil’s either although I could the other day. I have tried on his PC, and that won’t work, yet I was able to look at both a few days ago. Meanwhile, my trusted friend can access it fine, which makes me think it’s an issue on our PCs here, but both of them and randomly? I shall have to either bother my friend to let me in via her magic portal (mine, actually, but on her machine) or speak to my accountant.
Ah well, I will buy myself a cocktail at a certain bar instead, and still come out better off.
Thank you for listening.
