Summer fruits - a colourful cocktail

As the summer slowly starts to make an appearance, thoughts turn to those long holidays in the sun , but in todays world it can be increasingly hard to "get away from it all" completely, without the office somehow getting hold of you even by the pool!  

Beware the holiday Blackberry

One common way to do this is to provide staff with a Blackberry - a mobile phone that can be used to browse the internet and  deal with emails from home and/or work.  There are many uses on holiday - you can check on the recent emails from work, your teenage daughter can keep up with her friends on Facebook, your son can play games online, to name but a few. 

If this sounds like you then beware, as you may be setting yourself up for a tax charge!   Employers can provide a mobile phone to an employee completely tax free (no benefit in kind implications) regardless of any private use, however Blackberrys (and most hand held PDA type devices)  are not classed as mobile phones due to their capabilities, and so are not automatically exempt.  There are other concessions for the provision of computer equipment to allow an employee to work from home, but not perhaps to surf the net in the Algarve for local restaurants. 

Eco-friendly soft-tops

If the sun does return to Britain, your thoughts might turn to driving along country lanes, with the wind in your hair and the roof down on your convertible company  car .... ahh, the stuff of dreams. 

Of course, some people get a bit hot under the collar without the help of sunburn, when they see how much tax they are paying on that Mercedes soft top, but does it have to be that expensive to drive a convertible company car?   

There are a number of eco-friendly soft tops out there, and although the likes of the Smart car (pictured) may not be your idea of driving bliss, there are many similar vehicles and electric hybrid cars available from under £7,000 with CO2 figures of less than 100, that could slash your personal company car tax bills, and save the business money too!

Car survey

So, would you drive one?  Is the lack of space and/or refinement just not worth it, would you like to see considerable tax savings, does the lack of perfomance or range put you off, do you want to help reduce your carbon footprint? 

Take our quick and easy poll below - we will let you know the results in our next edition.

   (if you have popups blocked, click here)

One final thing, as you sip your summer fruits cocktail sat on the beach watching iPlayer downloads on your Blackberry and dreaming of the open road - please remember that you may need to report these tasty treats to the tax man, on forms P11D and P11D(b).  If so, these forms must be submitted to the Revenue by 6 July otherwise there can be substantial penalties raised - up to £3,000 in some cases!  

If you would like more information regarding any of the issues outlined please feel free to contact Ian Haynes ihaynes@springfords.com.