Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Friday 8 June 2007, 3:46 PM
Work phones for personal use?
It's an interesting thing really, personal calls from company mobiles. Many companies offer that as a perk, while other take a dim view... what sort are your employers?
PreviousComments on this post
In my company, for staff who spend time out of the office, personal use of a company mobile is considered entirely reasonable and unavoidable, particularly when the travelling involves out of office hours.
I have not heard the VAT argument before - but the office where I spend 40% of my time has done away with fixed line phoes entirely, most of the workforce hot desk and use their mobiles for ALL calls - so the VAT situation would be very complex.
In my opinion, AKJ have a solution in need of a problem! True it happens, indeed I reckon the £400m is a conservative understatement of the extent of personal calling, but trying to stop it happening is futile, if companies are breaking tax rules then it is the Inland Revenue who need to educate them to correct their claims.
Well it's not just mobiles is it. If someone makes a personal call from their desk phone. Does the company claim the VAT back, even if the call is identified as being personal?
