The Green-Eyed Goddess.

I was watching Skye News the other day and saw, to my amazement, a couple in the UK , who had just scooped 56 million on the lottery, celebrating with champagne and getting their faces imprinted on the bitter, envious minds of all the many who didn´t win and resent the fact. How naive can you be? Didn´t someone warn them to keep it under wraps? Or didn´t they have any choice in the matter? I would imagine their lives will change drastically and probably not all to the good after this.

At about the same time, in their newspaper commentary section, Skye showed a screaming headline denouncing all the British expats who receive winter fuel allowances abroad. I didn´t read the article but I suppose it ranted on about the luxury lifestyle in the sun blah blah and how the poor Brits freezing at home shouldn´t have to divvy up for people sipping G&Ts on the Costas. They should try a winter out here and see what they think then! I don´t get, nor ever have received, this benefit, so I´ve no axe to grind. It just seems to me to be yet another display of envy from the don´t have as much as you do lot.

I´ve lived in Sweden for 30 years so can testify that envy flourishes in the frozen wastes of Scandiavia too. People assume that you must be very well-heeled to have a place in Spain. And to be well-heeled in Nordic countries isn´t that easy with the grinding tax burden, so it´s often assumed that you have probably beaten the system somehow.

Once you have made your move and live abroad, the Swedish Inland Revenue pursues you with vigour to make sure you follow the regulations. As a Swede living abroad, all your income is taxed at source and arrives, 25% depleted, in your bank account. You then pay income tax here in Spain, send the bank receipts to Sweden and wait nervously to see if the authorities there will OK everything.

If they do, which isn´t always the case, they eventually send you back the tax you have paid in Spain. Thing is, if you end up paying, say, 18% in Spain, you don´t get all the 25% back. Oh no, you only get the 18% back. The other 7% is kept and used there for something you don´t get a whiff of. How grudging is that? It reeks to me of envy! It´s like somebody is saying: We´ll show the buggers! If they can´t stay here and pay 55% tax, we´ll damn well see to it they won´t be able to enjoy the tax benefits over there!

What´s wrong with people? Are there any truly genuine, pleasant types who are pleased when others have a bit of luck or do well, and celebrate with them , not feeling twinges of envy? I can´t understand it at all. I would never be like that…… It´s just that the couple I go to a quizz with have been on 4 cruises that I know of and I´ve only managed a week in Majorca. They must be up to some fiddle, for sure. I´m blowed if I´ll give them a lift next quizz night.