Paying your employee’s home phone or internet?
These days almost everyone is connected to the internet so it’s common for you, as an employer, to reimburse an employee, or for you to pay a third party for the employee’s, home phone or internet costs.
This may result in an expense payment fringe benefit.
Broadly, the ‘taxable value’ of an expense payment fringe benefit is:
- the amount you pay the third party or reimburse your employee
- reduced by any amount that the employee would be able to claim as an income tax deduction, such as the business use percentage of the phone and internet.
If the amount you pay the third party or reimburse your employee for home phone or internet per FBT year is:
- up to $50 – your employee just needs to provide you with a declaration to substantiate their business use claim
- over $50 – you and your employee both need to keep records of the actual expenses and substantiate the claim.
