The issue is all about whether or not a taxi hime late at night is a benefit, and taxable, or not.

There are circumstances in which it is not. You have to satisfy three conditions: you have to be working later than usual; it has to be an irregular occurence; and public transport has to have stopped working, or it be unreasonable to expect someone to use public transport.

If that's not schoolmasterish enough, it gets worse. Indolent employees who are too lazy to get public transport are in for some stern words.

The brief says that the conditions for it being 'unreasonable to expect someone to use public transport' do not include where someone;

has to travel home from work in the dark; or/and

has had a long working day and is tired, or/and

has a heavy briefcase, or similar, to take home with them; or/and

travels by public transport to a station that is unmanned.

Does Ebeneezer Scrooge work for the taxman these days, I wonder? You can almost feel the scorn for the pathetic excuses for late night taxis the taxman has to handle.

I'm sure the latest brief will help cut the amount people claim on their tax bills, but it's surely a little unforgiving?

It also raises a number of other points. Does the start of the night bus service mean that public transport has stopped working? And if our taxes were better spent on a better transport system that worked through the night, the taxman wouldn't have to handle any of these exemptions at all...