---
title: "Contents"
url: https://taxhikemike.org/contents/
description: "The full chapter list for the manual, with a scope line for each chapter."
---

# Contents

[Manual home](https://taxhikemike.org/) / Contents

Plain-language edition · nine chapters and a glossary

The chapters are ordered so that each one uses what came before: taxation as a system first, then the records that produce the figures, then the statements those records lead to. Reading straight through takes an evening; each chapter also stands on its own.

## Taxation

- 1[What taxes are for](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/what-taxes-are-for/)The four jobs a tax system is asked to do, and why they pull against each other.
- 2[The main families of tax](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/families-of-tax/)Classifying taxes by what they are levied on: income, payroll, spending, property, transactions and transfers.
- 3[How taxation changed](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/how-taxation-changed/)From tolls and tithes to income tax, withholding at source, value-added taxation and digital filing.
- 4[Tax years and filing cycles](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/tax-years-and-cycles/)Why continuous activity is cut into periods, and how the yearly cycle repeats.

## Keeping records

- 5[Bookkeeping basics](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/bookkeeping-basics/)The record trail from source document to day book to ledger, and what it is actually for.
- 6[Double entry in practice](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/double-entry/)The accounting equation, debits and credits, a worked example and a trial balance.
- 7[Records a small business keeps](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/small-business-records/)Cash basis and accrual, the everyday books, and a month-end procedure.

## Reading accounts

- 8[Reading a set of accounts](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/reading-accounts/)The profit and loss account, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement, and how they tie together.
- 9[Checks and questions](https://taxhikemike.org/chapters/checks-and-questions/)Margins, working capital, reconciliation, and the questions a careful reader asks.

## Reference

- ·[Glossary](https://taxhikemike.org/reference/glossary/)Every term used in the manual, defined in one line, with the chapter that works it through.