TELECOM 247

We are looking at the possibility of installing a second line in
employees homes for homeworking purposes. It is planned to convert
these to ADSL if avaiable so that we dont have to compel the employee
to convert their own lines.

If we do this, who has responsibilty for the line? For example if the
employee leaves would they be liable for any contract on the line?
(ignore ADSL - we would liaise with the ISP). Also as the line would
be to a residential property can the rental/bill be paid directly by
the employer or would the employee need to pay and claim back?

I assume it would be better to install a business line and not a
second residential line.

Any comments welcome.

Thanks

BH

BLH wrote in message
news:fbac116f.0402090538.9d65f98@posting.google.com...

Lots of issues.

You should install, contract and pay direct for the [business] line. You
can then cease it if an employ leaves or abuses it. You can also put ADSL /
ISDN on as required. You need to make it clear that the line is for
business use for two reasons: -

1. Employee will not make expensive personal calls at your expense.

2. Employee does not get tax liability.


The employee benefits from free ADSL use.

R. Mark Clayton wrote in message
news:c08c18$ud$7@titan.btinternet.com...

[snip]


Could the last item not be construed as a perk for tax purposes, if the
ADSL gets used for personal use..?

Ivor

In article
Ivor Jones wrote:


[snip]


<http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM21615.htm> appears
to be relevant.

It would seem that as long as the line is provided primarily for
business use and not as a reward to the employee, personal use is
permissible without tax liabilities arising as long as the employer does
not incur extra cost as a result of that use.

If personal use does not directly result in the employer being charged
(as it would with a Metronet line), it should be exempt from taxation.

--
James MacDonald

A few things come to mind.

If you are wanting the employees to connect back to your office, instead of
buying an ADSL line that connects to the internet, buy one that connects
back to your office. This way, the employees are then part of YOUR office
network and have to pass through your existing firewall and internet
connection if they want to browse the net. They will have access to any
servers and printers and on top of this, you will not need to mess about
with VPNs etc.

Then once you have done this, look at using VoIP to connect them back into
the office phone system. This way you get full control of business calls,
free internal calls and all at the same rate as if they were in the office
(where I assume you have negotiated a good rate).

Finally, provide and pay for the line. Dont ask the employee to pay and
claim. This way, you have central billing.

If you do all of the above, not only do you get fixed costs for all your
home workers, but because the line can ONLY connect them back into the
office, the tax liability goes away as well.

Networkguy wrote in message
news:1076369054.1980.0@echo.uk.clara.net...


Look at the BT OneBill service and its associated Billing Analyst software.
Ive found them very useful for just this sort of thing.

Ivor Jones wrote in message
news:c08i6n$pe8$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...

No because there is no marginal cost - who says they use it anyway?

This is why the deemed Ł200 a year charge for Co. mobile phones was
dropped very quickly - even when it was brought in my cost was Ł90pa and
even with calls the benefit was well less than the arbitrary Ł200 a year
even if the use had been entirely personal (in fact is was almost entirely
business with just the odd Ill be late back call). Still who said tax
had to be fair or reasonable?

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 23:24:12 -0000, Networkguy
wrote:


I didnt realise you could get a point-to-point ADSL connection?