The Treasury is denying that changes to tax rules will mean people paying tax to use their work computer for personal chores.

With the ending of the Home Computing Initiative, computers come under the same tax regulations they did before. This means they must be used mainly for work purposes.

A spate of newspaper stories today claimed that individuals and their employers could end up being taxed for employees' personal use of work PCs.

But the Treasury is unlikely to investigate anyone for looking for insurance quotes or cheap flights from their work computer, any more than they are likely to charge you for occasionally phoning your Mum from your work phone.

A lack of news caused by the Bank Holiday weekend was blamed for the story's longevity. ®

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