Cell Phones Paid for by Company

CarolL1999

How do folks handle cell phones that you pay for for employees?  Do you require EEs  mark personal phone calls and report that value as income on the W-2?  Does your policy require they use it only for business and leave it at that?  Something else?

 Thanks in advance

cappy

Hope this helps. Parts of our policy: (WE do not report cell phone use as any type of income)

A. Policy Statement:
Wireless telephones may be provided to employees, at the discretion of Department Directors, to assist them in the performance of their job duties. Wireless telephones shall be used for business purposes only, except for incidental personal use.

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2. Use of a Wireless Telephone

The following points are offered to further clarify what is expected of employees regarding the use of wireless telephones:

·       For local calls, every reasonable effort should be made to use a landline phone first before using a wireless telephone.

·       Confidential conversations should not be held over a wireless telephone. Most wireless signals can be received by other communication devices.

·       Telephone records are subject to the Freedom of Information Act and therefore are a matter of public record and subject to examination by the public.

·       Employees shall not use a wireless telephone while driving a City vehicle or operating equipment. If an employee is involved in an accident while using a wireless telephone while driving a City vehicle or operating equipment, the City may not defend the employee from any claims or lawsuits resulting from the accident, since the employee is in violation of a City safety policy.

·       If a wireless telephone is damaged or lost, the employee should immediately notify the Telecommunication Analyst in the Department of Information Technology to prevent fraudulent use of the telephone and to acquire a replacement phone as soon as possible. Departments will be charged for any repair or replacement costs.

·       Each employee is responsible for the use of his or her phone and therefore is

responsible to ensure unauthorized use does not occur.

 

1083339

I hope this helps you somewhat.

The majority of our personnel have company provided phones and our policy considers them a company tool. In our policy it is up to the employee to maintain and keep the phone in good operating order and if they loose or damage the phone we will replace the phone and deduct it from their pay. We state that the phone is for business purposes only and any abuse will result in loss of the phone.

We do not keep track of the personal calls for W-2 income as we allow personal calls for emergency purposes. I record the usage on the phone bill each month and make copies of the bill for those that I feel are abusing the usage such as repeated calls to the same number and give it to their supervisor to talk with them. If that does not work and they continue I start charging them, especially for out of area calls, and send a copy of their bill to them. If they continue to abuse the use then we restrict all cell phone usage and only have the push to talk feature and as a last resort we remove the phone from their possession.