The UK Blackberry Tax
Link: Message from the taxman: don’t send personal e-mails on your CrackBerry - Britain - Times Online
THEY are the hand-held devices so addictive that they are known as “CrackBerriesâ€. The palm-sized mobile phone with e-mail and internet access allows professional users never to feel out of touch.
Now the taxman is about to dampen their ardour: anyone who sends too many personal e-mails on a work BlackBerry could face a bill of hundreds of pounds, under new rules governing work benefits.
“Anything designed to be used by being connected to or inserted into a computer†will also now be liable for tax, including printers, scanners, modems and even MP3 players, according to Revenue & Customs BlackBerries and other “personal digital assistants†(PDAs) had been exempt from tax because they were used mainly as mobile telephones, but their increasing sophistication has brought them into the taxman’s orbit.
This looks like one of those balloons the Government floats now and again to see how people react. Badly, in this case.
Tossers!
I’m planning to scratch my arse about 4:30 today… I’ll give gordon a ring to see if he’d like to tax that too…..
Posted by mark on October 13th, 2006 at 11:16 am.grrrr. That one ain’t gonna get him elected as PM when the time comes. Seems really mean-spirited to me on the face of it.
Posted by technokitten on October 13th, 2006 at 3:05 pm.Apparently it’s just a rumour, so says HMRC in an article on The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/13/rev_wont_tax_blackberries/)
Saying that though, I wouldn’t put it past the Government to do something like this!
Posted by Alex on October 13th, 2006 at 6:15 pm.I have just read in the Daily Bull that the government is considering taxing anybody who has owned more than one handset per year under the new Handset Addict Tax. So for example if in 6 years you have had 28 or more handsets then you will be taxed - and it will be backdated to the day your grandfather was born.
Ewan, I know of a good Pacific Island where the tax man can’t reach you. The downside is that mobile roaming charges mean calling back to the UK will cost you more than the tax!!
steve/itagg
Posted by steve procter on October 14th, 2006 at 8:57 am.Wow! I am ’shocked’.
I thank heavens that I am not affected by this tax.
But look at it logically. One is bound to integrate personal e-mail accounts on their BlackBerries. This thing just does not make sense to me. When I first read it I was like.. What?!? Kiddin’ right?
Posted by Sid on October 14th, 2006 at 5:50 pm.