Mobile tech tax: It’s OK, you can keep enjoying your tablets

Sanity prevails and your tablets and smartphones are safe from the clutches of the taxman– for now. Along with binning the 'parking tax', the 'iPad tax' has gone down like a lead balloon.

We'd love to take the credit for that, but it seems the PM knows a thing or two about the intricacies of taxing anything that moves, especially if it's small and personal and likely to fit neatly through any one of a number of gaping loopholes.

Quoted in the Herald, John Key's view was that "I think there's virtually no chance of it going ahead".

Apparently not one to worry excessively about the popularity stakes, Minister of Revenue Peter Dunne evidently reckoned there would be stronger opposition to 'iPad tax' than that likely from the proposed levy on inner city employer- provided carparks. Perhaps he fancies his device more than the real estate set aside for his motor.

Bottom-lining it, Key said the proposed gadget tax was "a nice idea [we respectfully disagree] when it comes to tax policy, but a pain in the neck for everyone that has to put up with it".

That would include employers, employees and in all probability, government itself. Perhaps the only potential winners might be the ITSM tools vendors, always eager to provide intricately-detailed mobile device management solutions.

For this particular application, however, it's a case of cool your boots.