As I was pattering around my house on all sorts of chores, my mobile phone started vibrating in my pocket. I rarely get phone calls lately, and so I got quite panicky before I saw who was calling me. As it turned out, it was the good woman I discovered last year in the tax authority in Pazin (“Like Calling Hell,” February 20, 2013). I recently sent her some forms the British tax authority wants stamped by the Croatian tax authority to show that I am indeed a resident in this country. It has to do with double taxation and the like. But the woman from Pazin told me straight away that they do not stamp documents like these.

Instead, she told me that she could give me a document in both Croatian and English stating that I am indeed a resident of Croatia. I could send it to the United Kingdom myself. I explained that I could not possibly come to Pazin to pick it up any time soon. Thus I begged her to send the document to the United Kingdom herself. She was rather reluctant, but I got a hint that she would do her best to help me along. Helpful as she is in my case, she kept repeating that there are some things her office simply does not do.

As we were bantering about this bureaucratic conundrum, she also told me that I have already overpaid my taxes for this year quite handsomely and that I should stop paying for a while. I responded that I was following the rule of law to the best of my ability, and that I reckoned that I was paying exactly what the law required. On top of that, I argued that I would rather overpay my taxes than have any trouble with tax authorities anywhere. This is where our conversation ended, but I am increasingly sure that she thinks of me as an old fool. All I can hope for is that the good woman stays in her post for many more years. Looking for another good woman in the tax authority in Pazin strikes me as a gargantuan task at this stage of my life.