Content
Brave New World
Business Not Pleasure
Summertime Blues
All That Glitters...
Casting The Net
Trust Gordon?
It Ain't Over...
One In The Eye
Keep Your Nose Clean
Foreign Affairs
When Is A Car...
Don't Walk Away
Avoiding, The Issue
Brown Is Anti-PC
VAT's Up Doc?
Fuel's Gold
An Age-old Question?
That's Unfair!
Year In Year Out
How Hard To Try?
It's A Rip-Off!
Outlaws Win
Show Some Restraint
Not Our Problem
They Cannot Be Serious?
Merry-Go-Round
Pension Disappointments
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Personal computer, not political correctness: the Budget abolished the tax exemption for computers provided by an employer to its employees for private use. There was no warning of this, and a lot of people were caught on the hop - one government department was about to put a "home computing initiative" in place for its own employees. Fortunately, a computer that was provided before 6 April 2006 remains exempt - and one that was promised in writing before that date but not delivered until afterwards. But what happens when that computer is obsolete and has to be replaced? It seems that you either have to do without, or demonstrate that private use is completely insignificant, or pay some tax. HMRC have a number of reasons for this change. They say that computer equipment is much cheaper than it was when the rules were brought in, which is true - so if you have a £1,000 computer which you use 50% privately, tax will only be charged on £100 a year. But that makes it hardly worth collecting. They also say that people were using the exemption to buy games consoles - that may be true, but surely the problem could be solved by tightening the rules rather than abolishing them. Unfortunately, we now have to get used to the new position. If you provide computers to your employees at home which they are able to use privately, we will be happy to discuss the tax treatment with you.  |
© Bayar Hughes & Co., 2010.