Tax expert and gifted conjurer Mark Lee is a good friend of Taxation, but we must take issue with a recent press release issued on his behalf, which claims that he 'correctly predicted the Budget date of 22nd April on his popular TaxBuzz blog'.

In an entry dated 9 April - and headed 'Budget Day 2009 will be in April. Ssh. Don't tell anyone' - Mystic Mark, chairman of the Tax Advice Network, acknowledged Mike Truman's Comment piece from five days earlier.

In that article, our editor wrote: 'The last time a Budget was delivered later than 18 April was way back in the 1940s. But the House of Commons is not due to start sitting again until 20 April. The first Wednesday for a Budget would therefore be 22 April'.

Doesn't that mean it's Mr Truman, not Mr Lee, who is endowed with the eerie gift of far-sightedness?

Not that we'd want to push the issue, for fear of incurring the wrath of Mark the Mysterious and his black arts - the ones within the realm of magic, rather than taxation.

• Blog