personal phone company business

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kwired said:
But that is not the same as your employer mandating you use your personal phone for business use or insisting you have your phone available at any or all times for their business use.

This is something that has sort of being taken for granted anymore - that everyone has a portable phone. Though it is mostly true, some do have limited calling or data plans while others have unlimited plans. Your usage habits may make one plan more desirable then another.
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What is your point here other than repeating what has already been said?
 
France just passed a regulation prohibiting employers from requiring or even asking their employees to accept phone calls, emails, and text messages outside normal working hours.
Not clear whether it prohibits standby status arrangements for extra pay or not.

mobile
 
The downloaded app, I would have to assume to be straight spyware or capable of it. In the workplace, there are some who would get excited or obsess over the thought of being able to put malware, spyware, trackers on the phones of others. Toxic coworker or employer syndrome. It only takes one or two to make things go bad for you.

Even if the employer does not use the tracker features, the company that produces the app certainly has to target their market, compete with others, with the abilities demanded by their customers, which would be for everything.

Personal phone with reimbursed allowance, calls and text only. Company phone, it's their property they may put whatever they want on it, including keystroke loggers and gps trackers.

You would have to be nuts to put the company's app on your own personal phone.
 
kwired said:
I think what I said was still on topic. If you are not reimbursed for expenses incurred by your employment you certainly can deduct those expenses from your income taxes. When it comes to a state or local law requiring reimbursement - is it the right thing to do if the employee took the deduction on their taxes?

Advice to OP, if not required to be reimbursed by local/state laws, keep track of your non reimbursed expenses and tax a deduction on your income taxes.
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The problem with using it as an income tax deduction is you only get 30% or so of your money back; whatever your marginal tax rate is. A very high degree of suckage.
 
kwired said:
But that is not the same as your employer mandating you use your personal phone for business use or insisting you have your phone available at any or all times for their business use.
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My phone is the only phone I use for my employer's company business; I don't see what the difference is other than that they did not "mandate" it. I do it voluntarily because I do not want to carry two phones, not that they offered me one. I had an employer once who gave me a Blackberry to use, and I hated it. I hated the thing itself and I hated carrying two phones.

For me, anyway, it's no big deal.
 
ggunn said:
My phone is the only phone I use for my employer's company business; I don't see what the difference is other than that they did not "mandate" it. I do it voluntarily because I do not want to carry two phones, not that they offered me one. I had an employer once who gave me a Blackberry to use, and I hated it. I hated the thing itself and I hated carrying two phones.

For me, anyway, it's no big deal.
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Probably wouldn't be a big deal for me either - most jobs anyway.

I know our State EI's have a work phone provided to them, and when it is quitting time they are off and not getting paid - they don't want them to pay them any overtime either, so they do not answer calls after hours. I guess that would be one job if I had the choice I wouldn't want my personal phone number to get around or I would be bothered all the time by people with "business matters".
 
gadfly56 said:
A very high degree of suckage.
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How is that any different than any other personally supplied tool or clothing?
My company provides me with a phone and a vehicle. They also provide me with a year end payroll deduction to cover the portion I owe the IRS for personal use.
 
Using your phone for company business should not be a big deal, you have to take the pros with the cons, I know most people on there way from shop to the job site on the clock sitting passenger are on there personal phone online doing whatever, taking personal phone calls through out the day, so if you want the luxury of utilizing your phone through out the day for your own pleasure, then be willing to use your phone when ask to handle company business, are be willing to leave personal phone at home
 
jim dungar said:
How is that any different than any other personally supplied tool or clothing?
My company provides me with a phone and a vehicle. They also provide me with a year end payroll deduction to cover the portion I owe the IRS for personal use.
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Really simplified example using fictitious round numbers. You make $10,000 a year and the fed tax rate is 20%. You owe them $2,000 at the end of the year, leaving you with $8,000. Your employer says use your own phone for company business and your cost for their convenience is $500. You take that as a deduction on your income tax by adjusting your gross income from $10,000 to $9,500. Now you owe Uncle Sam $1,900 leaving you with $7,600 or $400 less than before. If the employer paid for the phone costs directly, you'd still have $8,000 at the end of the year. Never, ever let your employer do this to you.
 
SAP said:
Using your phone for company business should not be a big deal, you have to take the pros with the cons, I know most people on there way from shop to the job site on the clock sitting passenger are on there personal phone online doing whatever, taking personal phone calls through out the day, so if you want the luxury of utilizing your phone through out the day for your own pleasure, then be willing to use your phone when ask to handle company business, are be willing to leave personal phone at home
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I carry two phones. My wife may call me once a day for something or other. Once in a while I'll make a dentist or doctor's appointment on my personal phone during business hours, usually at lunch time. Other than that, I don't take or make personal calls on company time.
 
SAP said:
Using your personal phone for company business should not be a big deal,
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Calls and texts are one thing, but if someone wanted me to install their app on my phone, especially if it was some kind of tracking app, I'd tell them to get me a company phone. They don't get to track me when I'm off the clock and their app doesn't get access to my camera, text messages, call log, etc. (Yes, I'm somewhat paranoid about this :D.)
 
jim dungar said:
How is that any different than any other personally supplied tool or clothing?
My company provides me with a phone and a vehicle. They also provide me with a year end payroll deduction to cover the portion I owe the IRS for personal use.
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:?

Am I missing something or is your employer really stupid?

Won't a year end payroll deduction increase both your taxable income as well as the employers?

On top of that do they really go through the phone logs and determine exactly what you do use for personal use?

It is possible to go through call logs and determine which calls are business or personal to some extent, but texting and data use would be more difficult to segregate personal and business.

With the vehicle, unless you have a log book you must use, gets difficult to determine what is business and personal use as well.

Most just call the added personal use of such items a benefit.
 
gadfly56 said:
If the employer paid for the phone costs directly, you'd still have $8,000 at the end of the year.
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Maybe or maybe not.
My employer provides insurance for my personal vehicle, each year I get the privilege of paying taxes to cover my 'personal use' benefit as determined by the IRS.
My question was; why does requiring you to use a personal phone for business become much different that any other personally supplied required items such as wire strippers and pliers, other than the 'consumable' minutes (you provide the hammer, the company provides the nails)?
 
jim dungar said:
Maybe or maybe not.
My employer provides insurance for my personal vehicle, each year I get the privilege of paying taxes to cover my 'personal use' benefit as determined by the IRS.
My question was; why does requiring you to use a personal phone for business become much different that any other personally supplied required items such as wire strippers and pliers, other than the 'consumable' minutes (you provide the hammer, the company provides the nails)?
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No "maybe or maybe not" about it. Your employer is paying the upfront cost and it's a business expense for him. 100% deductible, regardless how the IRS divides the benefit. And it's a better deal for you anyway. If your car insurance is $1,000 per year out of pocket that's right off your income. Your employer picks up that tab and the IRS counts it as income to you. Even if the IRS considered it 100% personal use, your tax liability at a 20% marginal rate would be $200, leaving you $800 to the good at the end of the year. I'll trade $200 for $800 all day long.

On personal tools, my last employer provided an annual tool allowance for such items. $50 sticks in my mind.
 
jim dungar said:
And the IRS taxes benefits.
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I am 52 and have never owned a cell phone. I have had one since 1989 which at that time was a big deal. It's always been a company phone and I have always used it like my own. I am not reporting that to the IRS. :happyno:

Now it's evolved to a smart phone with unlimited data and it is used as hot spot for my family when we are on the road. Still not going to report that to the IRS.

As far as a phone being the same as hand tools, the company requires people to provide their own small hand tools but not supply wear items like hacksaw blades, drill bits etc.
 
iwire said:
I am 52 and have never owned a cell phone. I have had one since 1989 which at that time was a big deal. It's always been a company phone and I have always used it like my own. I am not reporting that to the IRS. :happyno:

Now it's evolved to a smart phone with unlimited data and it is used as hot spot for my family when we are on the road. Still not going to report that to the IRS.

As far as a phone being the same as hand tools, the company requires people to provide their own small hand tools but not supply wear items like hacksaw blades, drill bits etc.
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Ditto,
 
kwired said:
With the vehicle, unless you have a log book you must use, gets difficult to determine what is business and personal use as well.
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I once worked for an employer who had trackers on his vehicles and he loved to monitor them to see where they were going. He also got speedometer data from the tracker and if he saw a truck exceeding the speed limit he would call the driver on his cellphone and tell him to slow down.
 
ggunn said:
I once worked for an employer who had trackers on his vehicles and he loved to monitor them to see where they were going. He also got speedometer data from the tracker and if he saw a truck exceeding the speed limit he would call the driver on his cellphone and tell him to slow down.
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My father drove big rigs, if you are driving a company truck - they monitor all sorts of things, including how often you may have had some hard braking.
 
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