Tax Threat To Personal e-mails From The Office

I read today that millions of workers in the U.K. may be stopped from sending personal e-mails from office computers because of a change to the tax laws in the budget.

Both office staff and their employers could have to pay £210 a year tax on every work computer they use for sending personal e-mails or surfing the net on non-work related topics.In getting rid of the Home Computing Initiative tax experts believe the Treasury has redefined office-based computers as "taxable benefits". It is believed this scam...sorry scheme could bring in an extra £2.2 billion a year into the Treasury's coffers. Here we go again !!!!

It's all very grey at the moment, which is just as Gordon Brown likes it, but one thing is for sure if it is true, employers will have to monitor private computer usage in order that HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) can audit computer use. We will all be under the microscope again I suppose. Is this a potential massive tax grab or am I being cynical?