Germany's Finance Ministry appears to have been watching too many episodes of John Cleese's Fawlty Towers after it came up with a novel method of raising more taxes, according to UK.internet.com.

Employees surfing at work for private recreation will be taxed on their endeavors as a perk of the job, in the same way that they would be taxed for the private use of a company car or indeed any other benefit.

German employers have hit back at the unworkable proposal saying it is insane and impractical. Analysts predict chaos will ensue as employers try work out how to police private surfing activities and what the dividing line will be between personal and business web browsing.

If the tax were introduced, it would create a bureaucratic nightmare for companies as they try to log each employee's time spent on the Internet for purposes other than business.