For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.
Benefits May 2, 2006
UK Considers Tax on Personal PC Use at Work
May 2, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A budget proposal by
Chancellor Gordon Brown could force UK employers and
employees to pay tax for personal email and internet use on
work computers.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
Personneltoday.com reports that tax experts say businesses could be made to pay £210 tax a year on every work computer used for sending personal e-mails or surfing the internet.
The proposal seeks to classify computers used for significant non-business purposes as benefits in kind. The classification would require employees to pay income tax on them and employers would have to pay national insurance contributions, according to the news report.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation said the change will become a “new bureaucratic burden” on employers, but the Treasury said the regulations would not have a significant effect on businesses and that the law had been designed to prevent fraud or “blatant overuse” of company computers.