How to save money on a mobile phone contract if you’re a business owner or are self-employed.
Are you a business owner or self-employed and on a personal mobile phone contract? If so, you can probably save a significant amount on your monthly bill or get more for your money in terms of phone, minutes, texts or data. How?
- Most mobile phone networks in the U.K. (e.g. Three, T-Mobile) offer you more for your money if you take out a commercial contract rather than a personal one. On average, they are approximately 25% cheaper than similar personal contracts. This means you can either have more for your money, or save money if you have a similar plan to your personal one
- If your mobile phone contract is in your business name, you can claim the whole expense against your business, rather than none or a fraction. This therefore reduces the amount of tax you pay by reducing your taxable income
- If your business is VAT registered, you can also claim back the VAT portion of your monhtly bill – something you can’t do as a non-commercial individual
We do this at Money Minds and it saves us a significant amount each year. Just two examples illustrate this:
Network Provider: T-Mobile
Mobile Phone: HTC Desire S
Contract Term: 24 months
Minutes Allowance: 750
Texts Allowance: 250
Mobile Data Allowance (Internet): Unlimited
Monthly Fee: £20 +VAT
Approximate price of similar plan on personal use: £30 (inc. VAT). This represents a saving of £10 per month, or £240 over a 24-month contract.
Network Provider: Three
Mobile Phone: Nokia N8
Contract Term: 24 months
Minutes Allowance: 750
3 to 3 Minutes: 2,000
Texts Allowance: 1,200
Mobile Data Allowance (Internet): 2GB
Monthly Fee: £24 +VAT
Approximate price of similar plan on personal use: £35 (inc. VAT). This represents a saving of £11 per month, or £264 over a 24-month contract.
N.B. the above contracts may not be correct at the time of reading and were taken from May 2011.
The benefits of taking a business contract with a mobile network provider is that you get better rates AND can claim the whole expense against your business.
Disclaimer
The above does not constitute tax advice and is for information purposes only. Please refer to the HMRC website or consult a qualified accountant for clarification.
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