Income tax deduction for personal phone used for work

Hi all,

I’m considering buying a new iPhone. I use it a lot for work (70%), but have to pay for it myself - I don’t expense it.

Can I claim the work portion against my income tax as a work-related expense? I’ve tried googling, but everything I find relates to tax issues if a person claims it through the company, which I don’t.

Also - I pay AppleCare (insurance), and I pay for the phone in monthly installments under Apple’s upgrade programme. If I could claim partial tax deductions for the phone, would i claim tax or depreciation on the value of the phone at the point I purchased it, or just for the monthly installments paid in that year?

Thanks for any help!

H
«1

Comments

  • Harrypods
    Harrypods Posts: 13 Forumite
    I’m also working out how I can subscribe to this thread.
  • Tom99
    Tom99 Posts: 5,371
    First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    Does your employment contract say you have to provide and pay for a work phone?

    Will you be sacked if you don't provide a phone at your cost?
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    If your employment contract requires you to provide and use a phone, you can claim tax relief on only the EXTRA costs of works calls/texts etc. You can't claim a proprtion of total costs, i.e. fixed costs as they're not extra expenses - you'd be paying the contract whether or not you needed it for business.
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344
    First Post Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    As the cost of calls/texts is very likely to be zero as they'll be included in the contract there'll be nothing for the OP to claim.
  • Your employer can provide you with a phone tax free for mixed use but unfortunately I don’t think there’s any tax relief you can claim on a phone purchases by yourself. You also cannot reclaim tax on the line rental unless, again, the contract is in your employer’s name.

    You can claim tax relief on the itemised cost of business calls but only if these actually cost you anything outside your normal included minutes.
  • My question is less around the contract, and more the physical phone - which is from a separate retailer, deal, etc. to the contract.

    The phone is an iPhone I intend to buy myself direct from Apple. I do need a mobile smartphone for my work (I'm in sales), and do use it primarily for work - I can work out the percentages. My company doesn't provide phones, and are a US-based startup with a small UK presence so don't have corporate phone contracts here.

    I noticed @Pennywise noted I can't claim the fixed costs of the contract, but how about of the phone itself? Much of the gov.uk guidance also focuses on the contract, or a phone included in a contract, but not of the phone itself?
  • No you can’t claim for the phone. There is an exemption in place for an employer provided phone, not for claiming tax relief on a phone paid for personally.

    https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim21779

    Couldn’t your employer provide you with a phone under some kind of salary sacrifice arrangement?
  • Nope, generally US startups see 25 days' holiday as a huge extravagance, let alone things like phone plans, cycle to work, childcare benefits, etc. etc. They hire an M4 corridor administration company to cover the mandatory basics (salary, workplace pension), and anything else is filed as 'too hard' and either expensed or ignored.

    Thanks for clarifying, TheCyclingProgrammer.
  • However, I see that the link you post again only relates to mobile phones provided by the employerr. not one provided by the employee.

    Even on the specific section on gov.uk (can't paste link as a newbie), despite the heading sounding promising, they assume the employee is expensing the contract, not the physical phone.
    The employee uses their own phone and you reimburse them
    If you only reimburse the monthly phone tariff, deduct and pay Class 1 National Insurance and PAYE tax through payroll. There are no additional reporting requirements.
  • That’s because there isn’t any tax relief for your personal mobile phone available.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards