OMG

Ah WTH??? As some of my friends know I do quite a bit of share trading- I'm sloppy with the paper work - actually pretty horrible. So I got a letter from the tax office with a big please explain.

It was sent to my Australia home in September; and I didn't get it until I came back in November.

ARGHHH!!!!

I freaked out. I called my accountant, Edward Gw3e & Co, and explained the problem. I've talked to him in the past many times- but each time he shoved the problem back to me and told me to go fix it myself. This time, he recommended a book keeper to help me out. So I met with the book keeper - and got her to help me get my books in order.

Two months later and after spending a lot of cash, (enough for a downpayment) the book keeper presents me with a ton of files and the required EXCEL spread sheets. But the accountant's staff are not happy jan. They call me up and says one or two items seem to be missing - why don't you call up your broking house and get the statements?

So I do.

Then it turns out that the broking houses since last year- have sorted out their clients' trading data and placed it into an Excel spreadsheet- which you can download (provided you know where to look for it on the damn website).

Which means.... the poor book keeper's time (and my wallet) got totally wasted for bloody f*all.

OFM!!!!

I felt absolutely sick.

When my book keeper learnt about it - she got really pissed off. Our accountant should have asked us - at the very bloody beginning - to get the documents and spreadsheets off the brokers.

Admittedly, I should have known about this service. I asked about it in 2005 but this service was only started in 2006. And I wasn't informed.

However the accountant - being in the business of record keeping so to speak - (and being a share trader himself) should have been aware that broking houses now provide Excel spreadsheet records.

Only thing I can do now is to laugh it off... or scream.