Personal Tax For Employer Supplied Laptops, Smartphones etc

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Personal Tax For Employer Supplied Laptops, Smartphones etc

Goosey

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#114745 1-Mar-2013 13:12

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10868425

Thoughts?
Proposed personal use tax on employer supplied devices. Just when you thought everything is pretty much taxed..here comes this beauty.

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#772264 1-Mar-2013 13:28

What a silly idea. SO many holes in it.

And why is it only limited to tablets and smartphones? Surely it should also be applied then to desk phones and desktops in the office?

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#772270 1-Mar-2013 13:41

It's ridiculous. It will cost so much and be so much effort for companies to administer, they will simply stop providing these essential items to employees - which will harm productivity. And for what? Some pittance of tax? This government need to get a life. How about spending the effort going after massive tax evaders instead of nickel-and-diming everyone?

floydbloke

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#772271 1-Mar-2013 13:43

What regressive thinking. It's 2013 for goodness sake. Flexible hours, telecommuting/working from home and on the road are all here and here to stay. Employees need technology and communications to work in this way and the lines between personal and business use of these things becomes blurred very quickly. The government and its agencies should be encouraging 'work from home' policies ? It's greener, reduces traffic congestion and increase productivity.

Edit:btw, why is it that when you paste into the quick reply box from another editor it turns an apostrophe into a question mark.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

Klipspringer

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#772279 1-Mar-2013 14:08

floydbloke: Flexible hours, telecommuting/working from home and on the road are all here and here to stay.

Not if you working for Yahoo

ubergeeknz

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#772284 1-Mar-2013 14:15

Klipspringer:
floydbloke: Flexible hours, telecommuting/working from home and on the road are all here and here to stay.

Not if you working for Yahoo

And CEOs of companies which are actually successful are saying they're doing the complete wrong thing...

Klipspringer

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#772291 1-Mar-2013 14:24

ubergeeknz:
Klipspringer:
floydbloke: Flexible hours, telecommuting/working from home and on the road are all here and here to stay.

Not if you working for Yahoo

And CEOs of companies which are actually successful are saying they're doing the complete wrong thing...

I don't know. Part of me agrees with Marissa Mayer.
From my experience, people working from home tend to slack off quiet conciderably. We use to allow it, but now we allow it on a case by case bases only.

Back to topic ...

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Behodar

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#772294 1-Mar-2013 14:26

floydbloke: Edit:btw, why is it that when you paste into the quick reply box from another editor it turns an apostrophe into a question mark.

Technically, it doesn't. It turns an extended character that looks like an apostrophe into a question mark :)

NonprayingMantis

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#772299 1-Mar-2013 14:39

Klipspringer: What a silly idea. SO many holes in it.

And why is it only limited to tablets and smartphones? Surely it should also be applied then to desk phones and desktops in the office?

read the article:

"The tax would apply "when there is a mixed work and private expense that is more than incidental private use", the department said in a recent discussion document."

so it is for items provided by the company which are also used a lot for personal use. Unless you take your desk phone home every day then it wouldn't apply. Making theodd personal call from your deskphone or doing your internet banking from your work desktop would count as incidental usage.

likewise, if they provide you with a mobile or laptop which is ONLY used for work purposes and you keep all your personal usage separate by having your own laptop or phone, then that would also not be taxed.

theoretically it's just an extension of the normal fringe benefit tax,
specifically: anything provided by the employer for their employees work that has only inccidental (minimal) personal use should not count as 'income' for that person.
But if an employer provides something for their employee that the employee uses for their own personal use in a more than incidental manner, then it should be taxed as income, ideally inproportion to it;s work/personal usage. If it did not work this way, then employers could get around their employees paying income tax by providing all sorts of things like cars,

That said, it is a stupid idea that will be very easy to get around and just add huge costs for businesses unable/unwilling to get around it.

Batman

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#772314 1-Mar-2013 15:09

Hmm we are copying Australia when it suits the govt

dclegg

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#772315 1-Mar-2013 15:10

Klipspringer:
I don't know. Part of me agrees with Marissa Mayer.
From my experience, people working from home tend to slack off quiet conciderably. We use to allow it, but now we allow it on a case by case bases only.

I've been working from home fulltime since 2007. It may not be for everyone, but it is certainly possible to have a productive work environment at home.

Scott Hanselman recently blogged about this.

sleemanj

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#772379 1-Mar-2013 16:47

It's a ridiculous idea.

There is already FBT which is silly enough in itself if you ask me.

If they start going down that road, then people would be quite justified in wanting to claim expenses for their personal things which might sometimes be used in the course of doing business, then we descend into the maze like taxation systems that other countries have.

When it comes to tax, K.I.S.S! Complicated regimes just lead to less compliance.

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I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

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networkn

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#772387 1-Mar-2013 17:25

Klipspringer:
ubergeeknz:
Klipspringer:
floydbloke: Flexible hours, telecommuting/working from home and on the road are all here and here to stay.

Not if you working for Yahoo

And CEOs of companies which are actually successful are saying they're doing the complete wrong thing...

I don't know. Part of me agrees with Marissa Mayer.
From my experience, people working from home tend to slack off quiet conciderably. We use to allow it, but now we allow it on a case by case bases only.

Back to topic ...

This! We see so many employment issues as IT Providers, for workers who work from home. Complications all over the place.

nathan

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#772436 1-Mar-2013 19:52

Klipspringer:
ubergeeknz:
Klipspringer:
floydbloke: Flexible hours, telecommuting/working from home and on the road are all here and here to stay.

Not if you working for Yahoo

And CEOs of companies which are actually successful are saying they're doing the complete wrong thing...

I don't know. Part of me agrees with Marissa Mayer.
From my experience, people working from home tend to slack off quiet conciderably. We use to allow it, but now we allow it on a case by case bases only.

Back to topic ...

sucks but seems like a great way for a potentially dying business like Yahoo to shed staff through forced attrition

JimmyH

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#772482 1-Mar-2013 21:24

It's a good idea in principle, but a stupid idea in practice. Won't raise much money, and anything it does achieve will be dramatically out of proportion to the administrative and compliance costs it creates.

networkn

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#772511 1-Mar-2013 22:35

No, it will force companies to refuse to allow laptops to be used for personal use at all. They will apply very strict policies related to what they can install and write staff letters telling them that use of the laptop for anything personal is a breach of their employment contract. Simple really.

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