Company Mobile Phone expense related query..

Philbert

Hi Folks,

I am an independent IT contractor working under my own limited company. I have a personal mobile phone which I use to make both personal and business calls. Lately I have found the majority of expense being the latter. I was considering moving my phone account from a personal one to a business account and paying for it by direct debit straight from the companies business bank account. (Spoke to Vodafone and this is no prob.)

Yes I would be making some personal calls but if I have to start itemising which calls are for what then I don’t think its going to be worth the hassle. My question is:

Could I completely write this off as a business expense and claim the VAT back on the monthly invoices?
Are the tax people likely to ask me if I use it for personal calls and whether or not I have a personal mobile phone?
Would they actually go down through the bill and ask me who all the numbers are?!
Any other advice on this issue is greatly appreciated!

Please note that I am not trying to avoid tax here, I just want to keep things as simple as possible.

Many thanks.

paconnors

Philbert wrote:

Hi Folks,

I am an independent IT contractor working under my own limited company. I have a personal mobile phone which I use to make both personal and business calls. Lately I have found the majority of expense being the latter. I was considering moving my phone account from a personal one to a business account and paying for it by direct debit straight from the companies business bank account. (Spoke to Vodafone and this is no prob.)

Yes I would be making some personal calls but if I have to start itemising which calls are for what then I don’t think its going to be worth the hassle. My question is:

Could I completely write this off as a business expense and claim the VAT back on the monthly invoices?
Are the tax people likely to ask me if I use it for personal calls and whether or not I have a personal mobile phone?
Would they actually go down through the bill and ask me who all the numbers are?!
Any other advice on this issue is greatly appreciated!

Please note that I am not trying to avoid tax here, I just want to keep things as simple as possible.

Many thanks.

i have a company phone for the last two years and i have never been quizzed about my calls

Philbert

mikegannon wrote:

i have a company phone for the last two years and i have never been quizzed about my calls

Mike,

Do you also have a personal phone? Quizzed by who? Your auditors?

Ta.

Borzoi

Philbert wrote:

Hi Folks,
Could I completely write this off as a business expense and claim the VAT back on the monthly invoices?
Are the tax people likely to ask me if I use it for personal calls and whether or not I have a personal mobile phone?
Would they actually go down through the bill and ask me who all the numbers are?!
.

In theory they could, but AFAIK the revenue line is that if the personal calls are incedental (a small percentage) to the business ones they don't really care.

shacko

Hi,
I recently went in to bussiness form myself, and had the same concern. I contacted my provider O2. Who told me about a free system they had in place call group worker. With GW in place all I had to do was dial 7, before I made a personell call and it appears seperatly on the bill. The operator was very helpful and iam sure you can find the number n the web site. If you have anymore questions you can pm me