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Stealth Tax on Private Emails ?!?

The link is to Chapter A of yesterday's Budget. This includes raising £50 million next year (£100m, £150m subsequent years) from removing the exemption from income tax of loan of a computer.

If you take your laptop home then one presumes that is loan of a computer if you use it for private activity. It appears then that the HMRC will have to monitor how many private emails you send or how much other private useage you make.

If you, therefore, play a game of Freecell on a company computer it could be argued that you are borrowing the computer for that purpose and hence should pay a little extra tax.

I am not sure this is that workable a proposal.

Comments

Will said…
Would that only apply, though, if you had chosen to claim tax relief on a loan you were already paying for? There is a scheme here, that will now end, where staff can get PCs on hire purchase and benefit from tax relief on them.

The Inland Revenue already expects the self-employed computer user to determine how the cost of their tax-deductble PC breaks down between business and pleasure.
12:45 pm
John Hemming said…
The words are:
"Removal of income tax exemption for loaned computers."

It is the loan of the computer that seems to be relevant rather than the loan for the computer.
1:06 pm
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