Selling/replacing company-owned smartphone

[d000hg]

My phone was bought outright by MyCo a couple of years ago, though the contract I pay for personally.
I'm thinking strongly to replace the phone and would plan to buy the replacement outright through MyCo again while keeping my existing contract.

I expect to sell the old phone on eBay, through my personal eBay account. Do I actually need to reimburse the money to MyCo or will it have depreciated/been treated as a disposable asset that this doesn't need to happen?

[SueEllen]

I thought you had damaged that phone so it was no longer useable?

[northernladuk]

How did you account for it? How much are you talking? Few 10's of pounds?

[stek]

Mine are spares to ensure business continuity/giving them to the kids.....

[SueEllen]

Mine are spares to ensure business continuity/giving them to the kids.....

I think you mean the former not the latter.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

AFAIK the "by the book" way is that the disposal needs to be accounted for.

If you claimed 100% capital allowances and you sell the asset, or give it away, or sell it to a connected person for less than market value, you need to pay a balancing charge.

https://www.gov.uk/capital-allowances-sell-asset

So even if YourCo gave it away (to you) and you then sold it personally, YourCo still needs to account for it.

Of course, businesses scrap old, used assets of negligible value all the time. Who knows where they end up?

I pass my old phone on to my wife, who is company secretary, so the asset technically stays in the business. By the time she's used it then it has little to no value and I write it off the books at nil value.

[SlipTheJab]

I thought you had damaged that phone so it was no longer useable?

I heard the OP had lost the phone...

[pr1]

My phone was bought outright by MyCo a couple of years ago, though the contract I pay for personally.
I'm thinking strongly to replace the phone and would plan to buy the replacement outright through MyCo again while keeping my existing contract.

I expect to sell the old phone on eBay, through my personal eBay account. Do I actually need to reimburse the money to MyCo or will it have depreciated/been treated as a disposable asset that this doesn't need to happen?

what phone?!

[d000hg]

I thought you had damaged that phone so it was no longer useable?

It got damaged but after lengthy back-and-forth with O2, they ended up sending me a brand new unit.

How did you account for it? How much are you talking? Few 10's of pounds?

I don't know how it was accounted for, but I think sale price could be around £200.

[VectraMan]

What's your company's policy on depreciating assets? Most accountants say 3 or 4 years don't they? So "a few" might not be enough.

It's still technically YourCo's property even if written off for the balance sheet, so strictly speaking if you sell it you should give the money to the company. And also you should charge VAT on the sale and give that to HMRC.

I would say that using it for some other purpose or giving it to your wife is one thing; selling it and pocketing the money yourself is a little more dubious.