Business mobile phones!!

**swamp** · 29 May 2007, 21:15

Originally posted by unisign124

Is it easy/possible to get a personal contract and then get the billing depts to change name to mycomp ltd from my own personal name and presumably change the bank account paying bill to my company account.
(Personal accounts seem better value than business accounts)

My non earning spouse who is helping out as comp secretary would presumably be entitled to have a company mobile as well?Basically is claiming 2 x £30/month mobiles allowable?

The rules on this are very clear:

1. No. Your phone must be a business account. Most mobile providers will gladly send you a form to transfer ownership. You will need to sign a business contract, which means getting a poor tarrif but a completely tax free one

2. No. Company secretary/spouse cannot have a phone. It's one phone per employee.

Dispite the poor tarrifs a company mobile phone is a complete no-brainer. It's a cast-iron gift from the Chancellor.

**unisign124** · 29 May 2007, 21:51

Originally posted by swamp

The rules on this are very clear:

1. No. Your phone must be a business account. Most mobile providers will gladly send you a form to transfer ownership. You will need to sign a business contract, which means getting a poor tarrif but a completely tax free one

2. No. Company secretary/spouse cannot have a phone. It's one phone per employee.

Dispite the poor tarrifs a company mobile phone is a complete no-brainer. It's a cast-iron gift from the Chancellor.

Is the Company Secretary not an employee then??The company is paying her £98/wk for her contribution!!

Take your point about the poor tarrifs available hence reason for asking about transfering across a personal plan.

**RockyBalboa** · 29 May 2007, 21:53

Originally posted by swamp

The rules on this are very clear:

1. No. Your phone must be a business account. Most mobile providers will gladly send you a form to transfer ownership. You will need to sign a business contract, which means getting a poor tarrif but a completely tax free one

2. No. Company secretary/spouse cannot have a phone. It's one phone per employee.

Dispite the poor tarrifs a company mobile phone is a complete no-brainer. It's a cast-iron gift from the Chancellor.

Quick question.. sorry for being thick here

.. but supposing the contract costs 15.00 pounds per month.. either personal or business.. what makes it 'better' for you to have it come from the business as in a one-person LTD, it's all yours anyway?

**unisign124** · 29 May 2007, 22:05

Originally posted by RockyBalboa

Quick question.. sorry for being thick here

.. but supposing the contract costs 15.00 pounds per month.. either personal or business.. what makes it 'better' for you to have it come from the business as in a one-person LTD, it's all yours anyway?

I suppose if i pay £15 from my personal account that £15 is nett so was probably equal to £18/£19 gross therefore saving £3/£4 month if I pay from a business account.
Figures may not be 100% accurate but are for illustration only.

**Vito** · 29 May 2007, 22:08

I'm not convinced that it needs to be a business account...the mobile phone is a tax free benefit.

I have a standard consumer tariff with Orange...my name is on the contract and I was the one credit checked, but all bills and communication from orange is addressed to my company and the DD is my companies bank account.

**unisign124** · 29 May 2007, 22:21

Originally posted by Vito

I'm not convinced that it needs to be a business account...the mobile phone is a tax free benefit.

I have a standard consumer tariff with Orange...my name is on the contract and I was the one credit checked, but all bills and communication from orange is addressed to my company and the DD is my companies bank account.

Thanks Vito thats the sort of info I was after.

So can a company secretary have one if shes an "employee"?

**timh** · 29 May 2007, 22:55

The business tariffs don't have to be worse than the personal ones - and the service you get as a business customer is SO much better, it's unreal.

I've ported my old personal number to a new business account with T-Mobile - all the voice/txt I'll ever need plus "unlimited" data for under 50 quid a month, with a free N95 thrown in. I have an account manager there who's an actual person with a name, a direct line and an email address - it's like being in some sort of parallel dimension after banging my head against call centres as an ordinary peon for years.

**Vito** · 30 May 2007, 07:12

Originally posted by unisign124

Thanks Vito thats the sort of info I was after.

So can a company secretary have one if shes an "employee"?

The company secretary can have one if she is an employee of course...however, whilst it is legitimate, it might prompt an investigation on the general way you run your company. No-one knows what prompts an investigation (other than late filing etc) but giving the company secretary a phone is clearly a way of exploiting things as much as possible and therefore I'd come and have a look through your books just to see if you've slipped up and made a mistake somewhere so I could nail you.

Lets be honest here...you can justify the company secretary as much as you like, but everyone knows its a way of reducing your personal tax bill. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion, they put loopholes in there then they should expect it to be exploited as long as it is within the law, but don't then moan if you get investigated.

A general rule of thumb for running your own business (one that I work by anyway) is treat every "employee" including yourself as if you have no personal relationship with them at all...and then consider your shareholders as if you have no personal relationship with them.

So...you should operate in the most financially efficient way possible for the sake of your shareholders, so the decision to give you a mobile stands up as it would probably cost them more if you were to bill them for your calls. If your company secretary was a girl you employed from the job centre on £95 per week, I don't think the shareholders would be too happy with you giving her a fully expensed phone as a perk.

Tim also makes a good point about business tariffs, if you are purely interested in making calls then generally speaking they are better than the consumer tariffs. Also, the service you get as a business customer is much better. That said, apart from dodgy Broadband, I have never made a single call to Orange customer services and always get whatever phone I want free of charge with cashback for my old phones. Just whatever you do go into the store on the last weekend of the month when they need to hit their targets...check online before you go in as often the online offers are better than in store, then go into the store and ask them to give you the online offer (most of the operators will do this but it is an under-the-counter offer)

Blackberry Pearl is legendary! I have a BB Pearl and a W880, get unlimited texts, 500 minutes, 6MB Blackberry email (which in real terms is more than I could ever need as it is compressed so much) and 8MB Broadband for £50...

**Bluebird** · 30 May 2007, 07:54

Originally posted by Vito

I'm not convinced that it needs to be a business account...the mobile phone is a tax free benefit.

I have a standard consumer tariff with Orange...my name is on the contract and I was the one credit checked, but all bills and communication from orange is addressed to my company and the DD is my companies bank account.

Orange Business A/cs are mostly the same as personal ones.
One benfit is that your Cust serv no is 345 not 150 which is much better service as the call centre is UK not asia.

Business mobile phones!!