Working from Home

NeilW

On fixed line, mobile and broadband costs I should apply the same percentage but should be able to claim as much as 90% *if* it can be properly justified.

If you get the mobile contract/handsets into the name of the company then it becomes entirely deductible and tax free. You don't need to justify it at all.

sertav

Curiously enough, the guy wasn't at all sure on this one, specifically on the distinction between personal and business calls.

He gave me his own example, where he uses an IR-supplied mobile. IR pays for the rental + calls in its entirety but then his personal calls are deducted from his wage.

A while back, the Guardian published an article saying:

... the Flexphone scheme, devised by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward in association with Isis Telecommunications, to take advantage of tax relief on mobile phones provided by employers. The employer provides a phone for the employee and pays his mobile phone bills, but then claws back the cost of the phone and the calls from the employee's earnings.

The clawback comes from gross earnings, before deductions, so the employee saves on tax and NI and the employer saves on NI, or passes the saving on as a pay rise.

The beauty of the scheme is that the employee does not have to use the phone for work and can extend the benefit to his family, as it allows him to have two phones for himself and a further three for family members - a number agreed with the Revenue.

Very interesting!!