Mobile Phones - Business or Personal Contract?

[Jack Kane]

Hey Folks,

I've been using my personal mobile phone more and more these days for my business and I'm now thinking of taking on a new business contract instead of the personal one.

Do I need to bother? Can I just reclaim the cost of the phone use whilst staying on a personal contract? Or should I go the business contract route? Prices are very similar for what I was looking at, either personal or business tariffs.

I've had a look on the HMRC site - HM Revenue & Customs: Telephones - mobile

But now I'm more confused!

[barryhynd]

Hi John,

Put the mobile phone contract in the business name. You are allowed one business phone per employee from memory which means you can also claim the line rental etc.

To be honest trying to recharge from personal mobile is cumbersome. I would save yourself alot of hassle and just switch it over

[Gouldie0]

Hi Jack,

The link you've posted is more around employee's of a business who use a mobile phone for business use. It just gives you the various examples i.e. whether the company supplies the mobile phone to the employer or whether the employee is using there own personal phone for business calls.

Are you a sole trader or limited company?

I would go down the route of the business contract, these will generally be for longer but you'll get more add ons as part of the contract i.e. minutes, text, web time etc.

As the contract is in your trading name, you can charge the full cost of the contract as a deductible expense as long as you don't go over any call / email limits. You just piggy back your personal calls on the back of this.

Kind Regards

Neil