getting a laptop through work tax free, yay.

anyone else done this?? seems to be that loads of big business's are doing it at the moment, i'm getting an acer pentium M 1.6 with 1/2gb ram, a 60gb drive and a dual layer dvd for 850 quid, not bad considering that is the cost over 3 years that comes out ya wages before you see it, its almost like getting one for free as i will never miss the money or even see it.

Yeah, I've seen this done a few times - it's taking advantage of tax relief on IT equipment up to a certain value (IIRC

i looked today and its the same cost(within a tenner ) to buying direct just that i don't have to find

Was thinking about doing this as an option for my staff - isn't the catch that the company retains title of the equipment though...?

it is not yours untill the last payment when you pay an extra 20 quid or someting around that and then it becomes yours, officially i think you hire it for 3 years

Was thinking about doing this as an option for my staff - isn't the catch that the company retains title of the equipment though...?

That's correct - because the tax relief is on IT equipment bought for an employee (rather like their workstation), the company retains title of it until it can be "written off" (which is usually 3 years).

Bengie - looks like your employer might've sorted you out with a good deal there...

Rob.

My employer does the same, only through dell. You basically Lease the computer till the end of the agreement then either give it back, or pay a purchase fee. The fee is usually something stupid like

not bad, impressed it come with a dual layer dvd writer, its centrino too so the wireless is sorted, the 1.6 pentium M is equal to a p4 3.0 ish, bit better on some but worse on other things i think, also has a 64Mb ati 9700, all i want to upgrade is the ram, fancy a gig but not too sure what type it uses. on the acer website it mention both so and normal sdram upgrades, if it uses normal ddr then i got a gig sat here not being used so that will be chucked in. any ideas on the memory used?

i pay

My Company is doing the same, not a bad deal if you are on the higher tax barcket. But be careful of the small print, ours requires the kit is insured for accidental damage and stated on your home insutrance policy. But you can Mod it as you feel fit includes 3 year on-site warranty. But the downside is, it's another way of tying you to the company for three years, check the buy out clauses they can be pretty high. Plus see what happens if you are made redundant or sacked, last thing you want is no job and a grand bill for some kit you don't want.

My company did the same thing, I had a Toshiba celeron 1.2, but after a year it broke and they couldn't fix it so I got a brand new Tosiba, a million times better. And I've still got the old one.

accidental damage is not required, if it breaks its your problem(unless its a technical thing) and it hasn't got to be on home contents and ialso if you leave employment for any reason then you have to pay the remainding sum at agreed rate, the only difference being you have to pay it after tax and out of your final months pay.

so not really a lot to get caught up on really, and btw i had already read all this and not just to reply

not really any catches that i can see

no on-site warrenty for laptops though, its a RTB warrenty but at least they come and collect it and return it at no cost to you for 3 years and they don't mind mods either