Boo hiss! UK taxman has his eye on corporate smartphone users

If your company provides you with a smartphone then you are probably delighted that quite apart from allowing you to check your email and edit documents on the move, it can also be a boost to your digital lifestyle - camera, mp3 player, gaming etc.

However, this versatility may be just the excuse that HMRC needs to squeeze a few more pennies out of you treating the provision of a smartphone as a benefit in kind, rather than as a pure business expense.

Yes, smartphones may go the way of the company car and the personal computer and become liable for income tax, which would provide 3 million Britons with a tax headache and a lot of businesses with an accounting nightmare.

It seems unlikely that smartphone manufacturers would begin to remove functionality from smartphones, so it is odds on that Gordon Brown (er who is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer?) will take a closer look at out digital buddies in the very near future.