Staff Laptops and Tax

[enjay]

Anyone know the current score regarding tax and the personal use of school-owned laptops? I know in the past, there was some usage allowance, after which the user was meant to pay a small amount of tax on the item, but don't know if that is still the case, and if so, how that tax should be paid. Advice welcome.

[laserblazer]

I'll ask the missus.

[NikChillin]

We have not heard of this, where did you get your info?

[enjay]

9.3 Private use of goods, including road fuel, and services

 

9.3.1 Goods

 

When goods that belong to your business are put to a private use outside the business, you make a taxable supply. This includes goods that you have produced yourself, as well as goods from your stock and any other business assets.

 

Private use includes:

 

your own personal use of business assets; and

use outside the business by anyone else, such as an employee, a relative or a friend.

 

Here are some common examples of private use:

 

you use goods owned by your business for private purposes;

you give or lend someone an item from your business; and

your employees use goods that are assets of your business, at weekends or for holidays.

 

If the goods are put to permanent private use, so that they are no longer business assets, the supply is one of goods. If there is no consideration for the supply, VAT is due on the cost of the supply (see paragraph 7.6).

 

If the private use is temporary, the supply is one of services. If there is no consideration for the supply, VAT is due on the cost of the supply. Over any period of time, this is the amount of depreciation on the goods plus any other standard-rated costs related to the goods multiplied by the proportion that the private use forms of the total use.

 

Source: HM Revenue & Customs

 

Problem is, I don't really understand what that actually says!

[enjay]

Technically, this probably applies to any school computer, however personal use of those is generally quite low; my thoughts were sparked by the list of applications which one person here wants on their new laptop, which strongly suggests that the school laptop is to become their main computer at home too.

[laserblazer]

Our AUP states it's for school use only and must not be used by friends and family.

[GrumbleDook]

There was a clarification from the Tax Man about this a few years back, and there should be a thread (or 3) in here covering it ... paraphrased it basically says ...

 

A school owned device which is used predominantly for school work is also likely to be used for some personal activities ... but these are likely to be so small in comparison that there is no taxable amount applied to them.

 

That is what they say, but a school is perfectly within their right to say that staff cannot allow anyone else to use them other than the person it is issued to or another member of staff (covered under Data Protection Policy), what networks the device can be connected to (Data Protection Policy, AUP, Support Policy - Anti-Virus, patch management, etc) and where it can be stored. The school can even reasonably say that if the device is taken off-site it needs to be covered by the personal insurance of the user unless the school expressly demands that the user also has to do other tasks when away from work (respond to email, etc). More on that can be requested from your insurers at the school and will vary from policy to policy.

[enjay]

Our AUP states it's for school use only and must not be used by friends and family.

 

Not my concern in this specific instance, although possibly worth updating our AUP to include something like that (would also apply to the "babysitting" use of computers when staff members come in during the holidays). My concern here is not about family members using it, but the staff member whose laptop it is making extensive personal use of it - one of the things which they have requested I install is Skype!

 

That said, since they'll be using it all day every day in school, a few hours a week of Skype and such like won't make much impact (in the light of Tony's post above) so maybe I'm worrying over nothing.

[laserblazer]

We use Skype in school. Mainly for a young lady who is long term ill and we set up a video link for her when practical.

[enjay]

We use Skype in school. Mainly for a young lady who is long term ill and we set up a video link for her when practical.

Not saying there aren't educational uses of Skype, just that we don't use it in that way here. We have Google Apps, so if we did want to use text or video chat in that way, we would use Google Chat instead.