Work Email Tax ?

Plans to tax the use of work computers for personal emails and internet use have been slammed by workers and businesses. Changes in the law due to be debated by MPs in coming days would allow Gordon Brown to charge for personal use of office computers.

The amount of personal use that would trigger the tax is yet to be decided.

But it is feared the changes could cost staff and bosses billions, increase red tape and cause huge resentment among workers.

Matthew Knowles, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "As usual, it's the small print of the budget that has the sting in the tail. Not only is the cost going to be a problem, but also the time spent administrating it."

He said the measures would see the Treasury lose out in the long run, because time wasted doing the extra paperwork required could be better spent making more money.

"If you slow down small firms, you slow down the UK economy," he said. "Large companies will be able to get around it but smaller companies don't have the expertise and can't afford to buy it in."

Fears were also raised the changes would breed resentment between workers and bosses.

Peter Skyte, national officer at Amicus, Britain's biggest private sector union, said the only way to enforce the new rules would be for managers to read all workers' emails and monitor their internet use.
"This will be a significant bane for employers and employees, with very little gain for the Chancellor or taxpayers," he added. "It's going to be very difficult to enforce without substantial intrusion into employees' use of equipment."

Treasury sources, however, claimed the new law would only be used to punish tax dodgers. They insisted the chances of anyone being hit by a tax charge through personal use of a business computer were virtually zero.

A Treasury spokesperson said: "If an employee needs computer equipment in order to perform the duties of their employment, that equipment will not give rise to a tax charge providing any personal use made of that equipment is not significant.

"HMRC will take a practical view of what significant private use is."