It’s probably time to consider the liability!
Due to and through the pandemic, a large number of employees who would usually have been office based have had to face the change of working from home or other locations to maintain social distancing and lock down protocols. In that respect it has been an essential element of this that employees have had to have technology, equipment and furniture supplied through their employers to maintain an ability to work efficiently.
As the UK continues to move out of lockdown and a relative semblance of what will be the new normal, more and more employees are moving back to their normal working environment.
Because of this, it is more important than ever that employers understand the status of such equipment and the possible liabilities that must be considered.
Employer provided equipment:
If an employer has supplied their employees with office equipment to allow them to work from home without a transfer of ownership, there is no tax charge when they return the equipment back at the end of the home working period. If however the employee continues to keep the equipment at home after they return to the office, they will therefore need to transfer the ownership of the equipment to the employee and a benefit charge generally arises on the market value of the equipment at the time the transfer occurs (under transfer of assets on the P11D), less any amount made good by the employee. There is an alternative method for calculating the chargeable benefit when equipment is transferred, more information on this method can be found here:
Employer reimbursed equipment
If your employee has agreed to purchase their own home office equipment for use whilst working at home as a result of coronavirus and the employer reimburses the exact expense, unless you have specified to your employee that they must transfer ownership to you, the ownership of the equipment rests with your employee.
There is no benefit charge on the reimbursement. There is also no benefit charge if you allow your employee to keep the equipment as it is something that they already own. Further information can be found here:
