Claiming for Broadband

[Crusoe101]

Hi there,

My accountant advises me that its best to have my broadband and mobile phone in the companies name in order to claim for thier use.

I am looking at BB pakcages now and the business ones are much morte costly than others. Could I not get the DD coming out of my comp account?????

[NickNick]

The difference between the business BB and resedential BB as I understand it is that residential will get you "up to 2Mb" and business will get you "guaranteed 2Mb". Hence the difference in price.

I'm not sure but I wouldn't guarantee that a bband provider would let you have a res acct pad for by a business.

[ASB]

Hi there,

My accountant advises me that its best to have my broadband and mobile phone in the companies name in order to claim for thier use.

I am looking at BB pakcages now and the business ones are much morte costly than others. Could I not get the DD coming out of my comp account?????

Yes you could quite probably just set up the DD to come from your business account (but that won't make it a business contract - it would strictly make it a BIK because the compnay is paying your bills).

However whether you choose to elect that it is really a company contract and hope for the best is entirely up to you - it may get picked up in an investigation it may not.

Most pohone co's will allow the bill to be Crusoe, Crusoe Limited, xxxxxxxxx; but that still doesn't make it a company contract.

[Little'Old Me]

There was recently a situation with the HMRC where after a PAYE audit, they decided to assess the companies mobile phone bills (even though all of them were in the companies name) as a BIK, due to the fact the Direct Debits were being paid out of the employees bank accounts and being reimbursed by the company.

A complaint to a more senior HMRC person about this, allowed sense prevail and the assessment was withdrawn and the expenses allowed.

It just makes life easier if the bills are in the companies name and is paid by the company. Then all you have to do is (on new contracts!) prove that the personal use is "incidental" to the business use, which will mean that 100% of the costs are a business expense.

Although its all paid by "my employer", my broadband is in the name of the company, but the telephone line is not. The HMRC actually withdrew my dispensation last year for the broadband. But as my usage has not changed in all the years I have had it, including under my previous dispensation, I have chosen to ignore this detail!

I don't use the telephone line to receive any calls - the business fax (and secondary business answer machine) is on it. All calls are done on a VOIP phone using the broadband. This line is a second telephone line (I receive a separate bill for my private line, which is used for personal calls) - and I had 3 reasons I did not put this in the business name

1. Lower monthly costs (a lot lower!)
2. I did not want a listing in yellow/business pages as I don't answer any incoming calls on this telephone number
3. I did not want to receive any unsolicited business Faxes.

[SueEllen]

The difference between the business BB and resedential BB as I understand it is that residential will get you "up to 2Mb" and business will get you "guaranteed 2Mb". Hence the difference in price.

That's not the only difference.

A major difference is customer service.

For example my broadband went down when I had a home service. It took half an hour to get through to the bbp via their customer service lines, then 10 minutes of me pi55 around with me having to phone a direct line before they admitted the broadband was down in the area and wouldn't be back up for a couple of working days. It actually took them 3 days to sort it out and under my contract terms I was not allowed any compensation. (And that's before they sold out to Tiscali......)

As a business customer when I had broadband trouble it took me a minute to get through to customer services and they actually phoned me back on my mobile phone within an hour. The problem was fixed by the end of the day. Yes I am sharing my connection with residential customers but under the contract terms if the problem can't be fixed with 24 hours and it's not someone cutting into the line (which happens) then they will pay me compensation.

[sweetandsour]

I agree with your accountant!

If the service is provided and billed to your company then there should be no problem.

If it is billed to you then in theory you could work out a proportion of the bill that was business related and reclaim that amount from your company.

But if you are being honest with yourself, what proportion of your internet use is really business related? Is it really worth trying to claim that amount?

[prozak]

Hi there,

My accountant advises me that its best to have my broadband and mobile phone in the companies name in order to claim for thier use.

I am looking at BB pakcages now and the business ones are much morte costly than others. Could I not get the DD coming out of my comp account?????

I'd take a serious erad of the HMRC guidelines about home offices.

I limit my claim to £2 a week.

As for company BB in your home.... well I think there is always going to be BIK issues if you ever use it for personal use.

If I were you I'd look at getting mobile broadband from T-Mobile or something.... then there is a really strong argument that it is 100% business as it is not necessarily available at home.

[Nixon Williams]

INTERNET ACCESS

You can claim for the cost of Internet/Broadband access at your home subject to the following:

1. There is no separate billing or record of access connections;
2. No breakdown is possible between work and private connections;
3. Private use is not significant;
4. The contract must be in the name of the company and paid from the company bank account.

If you wish to claim for a personal internet connection, then you can only claim for the business element of the costs. If the business element cannot be identified then no claim can be made.

Where a personal Internet package, such as Broadband access, provides unlimited access and no separate billing to separate business use from private use (hence you are unable to identify the business part) no claim may be made.

MOBILE TELEPHONES

The provision of one mobile phone is exempt from any tax charge. The exemption covers the telephone itself, any line rental and the cost of private calls paid by the employer on the telephone.

Notes:

1.The number of phones provided for private use is restricted to one;
2. Mobile phones provided to members of your family and household are excluded;
3. To qualify, the contract must be in the name of the company and paid from the company bank account.

If you wish to claim for a personal mobile phone, then you can only claim for the business calls, you cannot claim for the rental cost or any private calls.

This can get very messy due to the common practice of package deals with “free” minutes etc.

PDA’s & Blackberry’s are treated as computer equipment, although are commonly used as a phone. Company provision of a PDA/Blackberry should be accepted, although it would be difficult to justify this in addition to a mobile phone. To qualify the contract must be in the company name and paid from the company account.

I hope this helps!

Alan

[Nixon Williams]

I limit my claim to £2 a week.

HMRC now allow you to claim £3 per week (£156 Per annum).