The Taxman

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 561.

BOB WILDEN, 24, is a tax inspector. He earns £23,558 per annum. His wife, Denise, 20, earns £7,500 as a part-time secretary. They live in Maidenhead, Berkshire. They have no children.

'I'm mean in some ways, generous in others. I'll be first at the bar to buy a round of drinks, but I'd baulk at buying a couple of packets of crisps as well. I'll go hungry rather than stop for a snack at a motor- way service station. We always buy food in bulk so it's cheaper. We frequently cook in bulk, too, and put it in the freezer. Denise and I never row about money. We both indulgeourselves now and then. She'll spend £40 at the hairdresser's and I won't penny-pinch on the kind of malt whisky I get. I never spend much on clothes though, probably about £95 at the most. I don't need to look smart to be a taxman.

Denise generally gives £20 a month to animal charities, but she won't donate to beggarswearing £100 trainers. I'll give the real down- and-outs a quid sometimes. My widowed mum is a pensioner and lives alone, so I always make sure that she has enough to eat.

I have four credit cards, but one is never used. A bill for £700 arrived this morning for one of them. It frightenedusto death. Occasionally we have to get loans to clear our credit card debts. In my job it's possible to become a bit of a social leper. Some friends are always boastingto me about how theydodge paying tax. I don't like that. I don't like paying tax either, but I'd never dodge it.'

Ex. 3e) Provide antonyms from the text to the following words:

· full time

· rare

· behave truthfully

· pay out loans

· underrate

· greedy

· belittle, underrate

· spendthrift