Potholes, tax and bicycles.

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I opened my Betfair account on 22nd April 2003. I was one of the first subscribers to BetTrader and was a founding partner of JuiceStorm.com on 17th February 2007.

The JuiceStorm team built TradeHost for profitable automated trading and betting on Betfair in the UK, IE, AU and US horse racing markets. TradeHost Lite started in 2013 and is free forever.

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Here in Malta we’ve just had the budget. There is now an income tax exemption for working mothers for one year which is granted to women returning to work after having a baby. This income tax exemption applies for every working mother in respect of children born during 2007 and subsequent years. Well, there is a baby MOM here at MOM Towers born August 7th 2007. And as his mum works I thought this was a massive tax break as my partner is MD of a German sportsbook. The headline looked great – work and pay no tax! Sadly, the exemption is capped at a few thousand Euros. But still a nice break all the same.

Then Malta decides to incentivise the use of bicycles with a refund of 15.25% on the acquisition price of each bicycle. That really made me laugh. No one rides a bicycle here. And I mean no one. I can’t remember the last time I saw somebody on a bike. Why? The picture here tells the story. The roads in Malta are the worst in Europe. Think of a neglected country lane in England and most of the main roads are worse than that. Seriously.

The only exception is the road from the airport to the Golden Sands where I go for a croissant and a dip in the morning occasionally. And that’s only because HRH Queen Elizabeth II had a Commonwealth meeting there a couple of years ago. Really. It’s true. The Maltese government couldn’t imagine Lizzie getting thrown all over the place in the royal limo on the bumps, humps and lumps. Malta has a lot going for it but roads are not what you’d expect in Europe. Some small third world countries do better.

I know there are a lot of expatriates who read this blog and you might be interested in OffshoreInn.com which is a new creation by me. Let me know what you think here or there if you like the theme or not. Content is added daily by myself and many other contributors.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope you’ll join me lunchtime tomorrow – 1.00pm UK time – when I’ll be chatting to Mark who is BetbotPRO’s developer. It promises to be a great show. See you then.