Phone expenses at work

jj92

Hi,
I used to contract for a company and would invoice for my phone bills (about 80eur pm). I had to invoice the amount that i would have been charged for itemized business calls based on what I would have been charged without a contract.
This was because they found that my "free minutes" made it awkward to figure out how much I was owed. They didn't want and still won't pay for company phones.

It used to work out Ok when i was contracting but now they have made me an employee and I'm wondering how the hell do I expense my mobile phone calls without incurring tax.

Lets say I have free evening and weekend calls to any network and I make 100 minutes of calls during these periods in this month. I'm only getting these calls "free" because I have a contract, and I only have the contract because I have to have the phone for my job.

Will I be taxed if I continue to expense the way I did as a contractor?

Any feedback fro others expensing phonecalls and how you do it would be appreciated.

Eoin

Two easy ways - have them provide you with a work phone, or switch to a pre-paid solution and invoice them for the top-ups.

Serafijn

Can't they just pay for your contract? If you really wouldn't have the contract if it wasn't for work calls it makes sense. The bill would probably work as a receipt you could expense back? Worht running by your boss anyway.

1984Louise

I think this is the way it works@ 50% of your phone bill is BIK and the complany pays this + the phone bill

Buffman

Assuming your now a PAYE employee your expenses won't be taxed. You can just submit copies of your bill with work related calls highlighted & personal calls blacked out. Your expenses will show up on your payslip as non-taxable pay and just be added to your normal taxable wage after the tax is deducted.

(the free minutes issue may throw a bit of a spanner in the works though, maybe you could come to an arrangement with your employer about a set amount they would pay you for calls.)

jj92

Ya will have to have it out with the boss, no easy way otherwise. They can figure out the tax side methinks, they have accountants etc. I suppose so long as they assure me in writing that I have no tax liability on my phone expenses I shouldn't worry about it. They're a UK company and do things in the normal business way over there but when it comes to the few of us over here everything is done in some convoluted way that defies logic. I'll post again when I get it sorted.