Government muses ISP tax relief for 'Snooping Bill'

The UK Home Office is to back down on part of the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill which requires internet companies to foot the costs for intelligence services to monitor their email.

Under the Bill, internet service providers (ISPs) would have to pick up the costs to install "black boxes" in their servers to monitor internet traffic.

However, according to a report in the Independent on Sunday, cabinet ministers are now considering an amendment to the Bill that would allow ISPs to write off this cost against tax.

The government is also considering giving grants towards the cost of installing the boxes.

The move follows wide scale criticism from lobby groups that the Bill could cripple British ecommerce.

However, anti-bill lobbyist Simon Moores, chairman of the Research Group and chairman of the ASP community, claimed that tax breaks would have little benefit for small ISPs.

"It is a sticking plaster. Show me an ISP that is making a profit. You can't use a tax break against a loss. When the government talks about a tax break they're talking about the next financial year. So that means an ISP could wait up to two years for a potential tax break," Moores said.