Selling old equipment to staff

[itgeek]

Hi

 

Does anybody sell the old equipment to the staff, if so do you have a form they sign agreement or something?.

 

Thanks

[staningrimsby]

We have sold to staff and parents before but never made them sign anything, just wipe the goods, re-install the OS, take it off the inventory and away it goes.

[MatthewL]

I would just get a document typed up that says all responsibility is with them and not you and get it signed.

 

One of the reason we never used to sell kit on incase anyone say for example got electrocuted we would still be responsible apparently.

[bossman]

@itgeek:

 

I would be very careful if I was you as the VAT has not been paid on these items as schools dont pay VAT or claim it back, you will have the VAT man after your school if they found out!

 

I know this for sure as staff were asking me if I could purchase computers for them whenI first started in this role many years ago, I was put on the straight and narrow by our very wise Head Teacher who happened to be well versed in financial matters being the finance director for AQA for a number of years.

 

Its not worth the hassle, just give it away after either industrial wiping or smashing up the HD.

[Domino]

yep, as @bossman says there's tax implications. there's also the issue that there's 'those' members of staff, that regardless of what they've signed will badger you to look at it once they've fouled it up royally.

 

not worth the agro, save yourself the headache

[elsiegee40]

Clarification:

 

LA schools don't pay VAT.

 

Independent schools do pay VAT and can't reclaim it. (If they registered for VAT they'd have to charge VAT on fees)

 

Academies pay VAT too, but they get a lump sum back annually from the Funding Agency in lieu of VAT paid... so they are more complicated!

[truebluesteve]

You could ask for a donation rather than sell them if you're concerned about the vat implications. Having said that we sold a load of old laptops a couple of years ago and they had long been depreciated in terms of assets. We made sure staff were aware that we wouldn't support them and we never had any problems.

[pcstru]

Tax implications are twofold. First is it a benefit in kind (i.e. is it effectively a way for them to pay you *extra* and avoid tax/NI etc). Second, are you selling on a product to consumers and therefore avoiding VAT/committing VAT fraud. You do need to be careful of these but you won't get around the first by giving equipment away or asking for a donation. AFAIK, equipment that has had the capital cost written off (usually a minimum of three years) can be sold on rather than scrapped and as long as you are doing so at a reasonable market rate, it will not be considered a benefit in kind.

 

The other gotcha's are writing it off asset registers (don't sell stuff to the person that does this!) and windows licensing. We do sell old kit to staff. We do so without any warranty and if anyone was to bring one back they would be politely told to go away! We don't put windows on them (we do image them with Linux Mint), because we don't keep the original OEM image and we can't use our images.

Edited March 27, 2013 by pcstru

[sparkeh]

We get asked but there are too many hassles including the VAT stuff and any comeback if things go wrong, so we don't.

[alan-d]

Usually it is financially impractical. If you purchased the goods free of VAT and later wanted to sell them on, you have to charge the VAT that you would have paid when buying the product. For most items in schools, this is usually more than the item is now worth.

I explain this to staff and tell them they are better off finding a really cheap PC or laptop and have at least 12 months warranty.

 

You can sell them to another non VAT paying organisation though. In this case we usually ask for a donation toward our school charity.

[truebluesteve]

We only sell stuff that has been depreciated - i.e. written off and the cost is set by our finance director so VAT issues or benefits in kind don't apply here. Where it does become an issue is where schools buys equipment on behalf of the staff (I was told of a school near me that does this with laptops)

 

I would be surprised if people were selling off equipment that was less than 3 years old - unless they have very generous budgets.

[kaphc]

We when sold off some laptops for donations to the PTFA, the main issue for us was that it was all marked with the school name and postcode, so we kept a list of sales and serial numbers - just in case anything ever got nicked from the staff and was returned to school.

[sparkeh]

We only sell stuff that has been depreciated - i.e. written off and the cost is set by our finance director so VAT issues or benefits in kind don't apply here.

Can you explain why not?

[steve]

A couple of other things - first you should really get best value, and not be selling it to the head or others in SMT so it's not seen as a perk for them. When I've done this any equipment was offered to all staff and sealed bids were submitted. The other is your WEEE obligations - is resale disposal or do you need to offer a recycling service as a reseller?

 

What we chose to do was deal with a local WEEE recycling charity, they refurbished all the equipment we donated to them and in turn sold it back to the staff.

 

I would ensure staff buying anything are fully aware of what it is they are getting - worn second hand, if a laptop does the battery work etc.

[jimmy_2k]

yep, as @bossman says there's tax implications. there's also the issue that there's 'those' members of staff, that regardless of what they've signed will badger you to look at it once they've fouled it up royally.

 

not worth the agro, save yourself the headache

 

My thoughts exactly. Phone up your nearest take away WEEE waste for free and pass you a certificate of disposal and data destruction. It will cost you more in time and effort. I have also been known to pass equipment onto other schools who need it.