Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

Telephones and computer equipment

319 Mobile telephones

(1) No liability to income tax arises by virtue of Chapter 10 of Part 3 (taxable benefits: residual liability to charge) in respect of the provision for an employee or a member of the employee’s family or household of a mobile telephone without any transfer of property in it.

(2) In this section “mobile telephone” means telephone apparatus which—

(a) is not physically connected to a land-line, and

(b) is not a cordless telephone or a telepoint telephone.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2)—

• “cordless telephone” means telephone apparatus designed or adapted to provide a wireless extension to a telephone and used only as such an extension to a telephone which is physically connected to a land-line,

• “telephone apparatus” means wireless telegraphy apparatus designed or adapted for the purpose of transmitting and receiving spoken messages and connected to a public telecommunication system (as defined in section 9(1) of the Telecommunications Act 1984 (c. 12)), and

• “telepoint telephone” means telephone apparatus used for the purpose of a short-range radio communications service at frequencies between 864 and 868 megahertz (inclusive).

320 Limited exemption for computer equipment

(1) No liability to income tax arises by virtue of Chapter 10 of Part 3 (taxable benefits: residual liability to charge) in respect of the provision of computer equipment if conditions A to C are met.

(2) Condition A is that the equipment is made available to the employee or to a member of the employee’s family or household without any transfer of property in it.

(3) Condition B is that the arrangements under which computer equipment is made available to employees of the employer, or to members of their families or households, do not favour directors (see subsection (6)).

(4) Condition C is that the aggregate cash equivalent of the benefit of the provision of such equipment in the tax year does not exceed £500.

(5) If conditions A and B are met, but condition C is not, the employee is only liable to income tax in the tax year by virtue of Chapter 10 of Part 3 on so much of that aggregate cash equivalent as exceeds £500.

(6) The arrangements referred to in condition B are only taken to favour directors if—

(a) the only such arrangements are arrangements under which the employee is required to be a director of a company, or

(b) taking all such arrangements together, the terms on which the equipment is made available are more favourable in some or all cases where the employee is a director than in one or more cases where the employee is not.

(7) In this section—

(a) “computer equipment” includes printers, scanners, modems, discs and other peripheral devices designed to be used by being connected to or inserted in a computer,

(b) “director” has the meaning given by section 67(1),

(c) references to making computer equipment available—

(i) include references to the provision, together with any computer equipment made available, of a right to use computer software, but

(ii) do not include references to the provision of access to, or the use of, any public telecommunication system, and

(d) “public telecommunication system” has the same meaning as in the Telecommunications Act 1984 (see section 9(1)).