Mobile Phone Charges

Claire R

Hi. I have what I presume is a silly question so I apologise in advance. I have recently taken on a little bookkeeping work and am registered as a MIP. I have been in industry for many years but haven't worked in practice. I'm registered for bookkeeping only but am working on a friend's tax return free of charge. His accounts are very simple and we've opted for the cash basis.
So, the silly question is this. My friend started being self employed in August and had a mobile phone which he now uses for business and personal use. He pays 2 set amounts per month (handset and usage). Can I assume a percentage of these monthly bills can be charged to the business?

phoenixd

You should really only allocate the appropriate proportion based on actual usage. How are you looking to work out the percentage? And will this percentage hold monthly?

Claire R

He hasn't kept any records of actual usage. To be fair I would assume very few actual calls were made out so it's probably negligible on usage. He's advertised this number as the one for customers to contact him so if he didn't already have the phone he would have to have bought one. I guess that logic doesn't fly with HMRC :-)

phoenixd

To cover yourself, look at a couple of bills and ask him to highlight business calls. Then use these to calculate an estimated percentage for calls and line.

Claire R

Will do that. Many thanks for your input.