It's all very taxing

Yes it's that time of year again. When the pounds are ripped from your bleeding fingers to satisfy the government's lust for schools, hospitals and studies telling you that eating too much makes you fat.

This year in my list of deductions I've included a charge for stationery, a calculator and a pen specifically for use as me being an unpaid tax collector in the form of VAT. A small victory admittedly.

Fortunately, deductions wise I also research around 20 different proposed projects a year. There was my proposed drama series set in Venice. Another in the Cotswolds [just a weekend that time] All my theatre and cinema trips and DVD rentals and purchases, not to mention my Broadband and Sky subscriptions are of course vital research and tools of my trade.

This year I decided to research a project on Internet Dating. It is a huge and growing business and one that the internet could have been made for. There's drama and pathos and feelgood all wrapped up in one. So I figure the £50 could be money well spent. Bound to be a project waiting to be found.

My research produced an invaluable fact. THERE ARE SOME FRICKIN' BABES OUT THERE!

I've got my title. I even typed a paragraph or two on the concept. It is therefore a proposed project. I may even send it to my agents. Not to get an evidentiary trail, oh no. Purely for their input.

In my view, but not necessarily the taxman's, anything a writer spends, with the possible exception of food and toilet paper should be deductable. Because everything a writer does makes them a writer. That can be anything from a £100 on lapdancers [still searching for a title] To a £1000 spunked in the casino. [ still searching for a premise]

Ah 'Spunked'. I think I've got my title!