Personal use of school laptops and tax

[localzuk]

It's worth reading the HMRC document above. The numbers in the example are slightly weird - assumes a value of £4,000 for a laptop - but the calculations are straightforward. If you have a £400 laptop and you use it for personal purposes for 40% of the time then you get these numbers:

Annual value of the computer 20% x £400=£80 (you are charged tax on 20% of the original value)
Less business use (60%) £48
Net taxable earnings £32

If you pay tax at 40% then you owe HMRC the princely sum of £12.80 per year. If you pay standard rate tax then you owe little more than a fiver a year - it's really not worth getting upset about, even if you have to pay it!

The thing is that the personal usage creates paperwork for the school too. This is why personal usage isn't allowed with our school.

[laserblazer]

It says that 40% is significant so presumably 39.99% is insignificant. The question is at 8:30 on Saturday am I working on my laptop or playing?

[dancingdruid]

I was wondering how schools coped with storage of staff laptops? Do staff have to take them home or do they just get left around?

I can see many staff here refusing to take them home (quite rightly so) if they were prevented from using them at home. Secure storage in schools is often a problem and I wondered how other schools coped (I'm wondering if storage of portable data projectors is also a problem).

[laserblazer]

We have Kensington locks that chain them to the radiators, when the teachers can be bothered to do it. This is more to deter the sneak thief. Determined thieves who broke in at night would probably have bolt cutters. They knocked down the wall into the secure laptop store at the Primary School next door to us!

[localzuk]

I was wondering how schools coped with storage of staff laptops? Do staff have to take them home or do they just get left around?

I can see many staff here refusing to take them home (quite rightly so) if they were prevented from using them at home. Secure storage in schools is often a problem and I wondered how other schools coped (I'm wondering if storage of portable data projectors is also a problem).

The point of issuing laptops to staff is so they can work at home, if they don't then they don't need a laptop.

Our staff have to sign an agreement which says that whilst off-site it must be covered by their own insurance and any damage incurred whilst off-site must be claimed against that insurance.

[skawarrior]

Our staff have to sign an agreement which says that whilst off-site it must be covered by their own insurance and any damage incurred whilst off-site must be claimed against that insurance.

Thats a nice touch I like that idea!

[plexer]

Our staff aren't prevented from using the laptops at home just accessing the internet they have all of their documents with them as offline files.

The internet issue will be resolved very soon.

Ben

[Andrew_C]

That's a nice touch I like that idea!

But it won't work. Your insurer is unlikely to pay out on something that wasn't yours. Unless your employer is going to sue, in which case they might.

Been there, done that, daughter filled laptop with hot-chocolate, insurers said "On your bike".