Mobile for company secretary

[Lewis]

is it worth all the hassle for a few quid more. Spend more time working out how to increase your rate then trying to squeeze out a few pence here and there.

You get better UK based customer service and other benefits by being a business customers of T-Mobile.

Quote "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."

http://forums.contractoruk.com/threa...10-mobile.html

It's not all about money.

[Lewis]

Ok, I found this on an HMRC document

"There is no limit to the number of mobile phones that may be provided NICs free solely for business use and on which private use is not significant. Only one mobile phone per employee may be provided NICs free for private use. No mobile phone may be provided NICs free to a member of an employee's family or household. See Employment Income Manual at EIM21778."

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/cwg5.pdf

I don't want to say Nixon Williams are incorrect in saying you need to justify business use but I cannot see anywhere where an employee (Co. Sec or not) needs to justify one mobile provided by the company for personal use. The only possible problem is that my wife is both an employee and related but I assume her employee status overrules the 'family or household' exclusion.

I'd welcome an opinion from an accountant as I just want to be sure about the Nixon Williams post and that I haven't missed something.

Thanks as always ...

[Lewis]

Well nobody seems very interested in this thread but for the benefit of people searching in the future. I have spoken to a specialist tax advisor (via helpline available to me as part of my IR35 insurance) and I have been told it is perfectly fine for all employees (wife or not) to have one mobile phone for personal use provided by the company.

[Bluebird]

Well nobody seems very interested in this thread but for the benefit of people searching in the future. I have spoken to a specialist tax advisor (via helpline available to me as part of my IR35 insurance) and I have been told it is perfectly fine for all employees (wife or not) to have one mobile phone for personal use provided by the company.

Does you wife recieve both a salary and dividends ?

In order for her to be deemed an employee she needs to be salaried, which entails paying additional PAYE on whatever salary you pay.

[ASB]

Does you wife recieve both a salary and dividends ?

In order for her to be deemed an employee she needs to be salaried, which entails paying additional PAYE on whatever salary you pay.

An employee does not have to be salaried.

Indeed paying no salary to sombody who is not a director and only providing with benefits (total value < 8,500 p.a.) can be a useful strategy since they are not taxed anyway due to the specific rules.

I doubt many actually do it because it does wave a big red come and get me flag and it does tend to cause certain interest to be raised by the inspector in the subsequent inspection, but it can be done.

[Lewis]

Does you wife recieve both a salary and dividends ?

In order for her to be deemed an employee she needs to be salaried, which entails paying additional PAYE on whatever salary you pay.

She is paid £5K per year for being company secretary and maintaining books etc... below ET and above LEL. (so no NI or tax paid). Is that an issue?

(at present she is not paid dividends but that may change after Artic case outcome)

[opc]

Well nobody seems very interested in this thread but for the benefit of people searching in the future. I have spoken to a specialist tax advisor (via helpline available to me as part of my IR35 insurance) and I have been told it is perfectly fine for all employees (wife or not) to have one mobile phone for personal use provided by the company.

Good luck to you if this is the case.

I have to say it sounds completely illogical - why would an employee be given something by a company for personal use that is not treated and taxed as a benefit?

[Lewis]

Good luck to you if this is the case.

I have to say it sounds completely illogical - why would an employee be given something by a company for personal use that is not treated and taxed as a benefit?

I only came across it because it is listed as number 74 in the document "101 Tax Tips" downloadable from the SJD Accountancy web site. So I dug around some more to get clarification and it just seems to be an allowable 'perk'. Maybe Simon from SJD can add something to the debate if he is reading this.