The staff of many companies who outsource to a payroll bureau now receive their payslips by email.

However, Section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 reads: "An employee has the right to be given by his employer, at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made to him, a written itemised pay statement." [emphasis mine].

This has lead to some suggestions that electronic payslips may not be lawful.

The Paypershop.com article linked above puts a strong case that suggests that emailed payslips may not fully comply with current legislation.

For example: employees must be "given" their payslip. However, if the employee cannot access their email - when they are on holiday or sick, for instance - then it cannot be said they have been given their payslip.

While it does appear that HMRC is accepting of electronically delivered payslips, there nevertheless is a risk if staff are unable to see deductions made from their pay on payday. This opens employers up to employment tribunals that could lead to the employer having to repay 100% of the deductions "even if they were legitimate or statutory deductions."

In the first of what, hopefully, should be an occasional series, I would like to present to you 'Pointless Tax Rules: Part One'.

The first pointless tax rule concerns reclaiming VAT on cars:

VAT can only be reclaimed on vehicles if there are no windows or seats in the rear.

Yup, you read that right. You can't reclaim VAT if you can see out of the back windows. Not that you would want to if there aren't any seats.

So that means lorries and, um, what else? Even most Ford Transits have back windows! Can someone link to a picture of a vehicle that isn't a lorry on which you can reclaim VAT, because, for the life of me, I can't think of one.