Conference rocks::uk_digital

    (a slight digression...)
    
    Many years ago Digital in its wisdom stopped travel advances and issued
    Amex cards instead (well,  thats what I was told - your part of the
    company may have differed).  I've had a DEC Amex card since then (prior
    to that I had my own).
    
    Yesterday I received a letter from Amex saying that as I had not used
    their card recently (about 12 months) they would like to close it down.
    
    Does this mean I can get an advance next time I travel?
    
    Jc
    
    

;-1 Can't you just use to buy Petrol or something and keep it active.

I use my company one for buying Petrol etc etc....

I also have a personal one.

K.R.    
    

>;-1 Can't you just use to buy Petrol or something and keep it active.


You get in naughties with the tax man then... 
It's a corporate card so business use only. 
Mine went *long* ago. 

    Presuming you do some business miles, then some petrol could be
    purchased with the card, without the Inland Revenue taking an interest.
    
    I received one of these letters and that's what I plan to do.
    
    Graham

    But how would the Inland Revenue know if you'd been using it for
    personal use?
    
    I too received the letter, as I think it's probably two years since I
    used the card. Fortunately, I intend to use it in a fortnight to go to
    Evry so I'd better send the form back.
    
    Jane.

    re:.-1
    
    They don't, but if they should ever check...
    
    Graham

   > But how would the Inland Revenue know if you'd been using it for
   > personal use?
        
        Because you tell them ... at least if you don't want to break
        the law you do.
        
        I got the letter too. I've binned it now, along with the card
        which I've never used.
        
        Ian.

   <<< Note 836.39 by TGRAPH::WEGG "Some hard boiled eggs and some nuts." >>>

   > But how would the Inland Revenue know if you'd been using it for
   > personal use?
        
;        Because you tell them ... at least if you don't want to break
;        the law you do.
        
This sounds like calling the Police to tell them you broke the speed limit or
parked on Double Yellow the day before ;-)

K.R.

    It's called Self Assesment......
    
    S

    I think I'm missing something here ?
    
    You buy goods with your corporate AMEX card, then AMEX bills you and
    whacks on interest if you don't pay in 40 days, then you pay it all
    off.  
    
    Where's the tax dodge in that ? and more importantly where does it 
    mention it in the card literature, I saw nothing about this when I
    received my corporate card and nobody told me, so how was I supposed to
    know ?
    
    
    Chris.
    BTW, I don't get to use the AMEX these days :-(
    

    As I understood it (years ago) Digital pays the membership fee for
    having a corporate card. The user is not paying the fee but is getting
    the use of an AMEX card - despite the fact that the balance should be
    cleared within a certain time. Therefore, you're benefitting from not
    paying the membership fee and the IR would be interested in that I
    guess.
    
    Jane.

The tax would be what ?  ....40% of �35 approx....or whatever the membership
for a Green card is now days. 

I only use the Green one at the moment ...I sat on my Gold card and it now will
not via the electronic swipe machines. And if you have ever seen a shop 
assistant type in the digits by hand. I will get a new Gold one in July so
I will wait till then , rather then the hassle of getting Amex to send a new
card.

K.R.

        Re .42
        
    > I saw nothing about this when I
    > received my corporate card and nobody told me, so how was I supposed to
    > know ?
        
        The UK Expenses Policy and Guidlines is on VTX:
        
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                      UK EXPENSES VTX               27-Sep-199
|d|i|g|i|t|a|l|                    UK Expenses Policy             
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                                                                 


   CREDIT CARDS
   Company sponsored credit cards are available for
   employees who travel regularly. These replace the cash
   floats previously made available.  No further floats
   will be issues.

   Tax note: If employees use the card privately they
   could become liable to pay income tax on the
   company-paid subscription.

    Thanks Ian,
    
    Of course that assume that I new the loation of that text, which when I
    joined , I didn't.
    
    Thanks anyway,
    
    Chris ;-)

>   whacks on interest if you don't pay in 40 days, 

Amex is a charge card it is *not* a credit card. Use it as such 
and you get a snot-o-gram pointing out the error of your ways. 
They don't do "interest" they do a standard late payment charge 
(about �30-�50) and a threat to take your card away/write to your 
manager etc.  

> Where's the tax dodge in that ? 

It's actually a pathetically small amount you're dodging, but it's
a dodge all the same, what you actually should pay is the tax on the
�20 or is it �30 membership fee digital pays for us. 

    As I understand it you are only supposed to charge company expenses
    to the AmEx card and hence are not gaining from the fee being paid.
    
    dg
    

    I'm glad someone brought up the fact that Amex isn't a credit card, so
    what credit cards are being referred to in the expenses policy I wonder
    :-)
    
    Another point,  even though we'd be individually paying tax on a
    proportion of the membership fee, wouldn't the Inland Revenue treat
    Digital as a company, i.e. if they think 800 (wild guess) people have
    an Amex card and are getting the �20 membership fee paid for them and
    they are using it for personal use, that's tax on 800 x �20
    er...�16,000 which makes it worth their while pursuing a bit more.
    
    /tmp

>    As I understand it you are only supposed to charge company expenses
>    to the AmEx card and hence are not gaining from the fee being paid.
 

Which is why we started saying if you just put petrol on it every now
and again just to keep the card ticking over you'd be breaking the rules... 

   
>     I'm glad someone brought up the fact that Amex isn't a credit card, so
>    what credit cards are being referred to in the expenses policy I wonder


Does it really call them credit cards not charge cards! I'm 
impressed we messed that up!  If we had credit cards the company'd 
probably end up paying  lots and lots of interest charges for when 
expenses didn't divvy up in time.   With a charge card it'd have  to
go wrong over 2 months to start accruing charges, with the current 
setup late payments results in snotty letters and credit black listing
(or negative points on your personal credit rating at any rate). 

I find working for Digital , like being a ruler of a small African state.
You could get shot for breaking some rule or another at any moment.

I wonder how many corporate rules I will break today , without knowing.

K.R.

    Kevin,
    
    Small African State aside....since when have you NOT known which rules
    you break???? 
    

;                       <<< Note 836.52 by CHEFS::NASH >>>
;
;    Kevin,
;    
;    Small African State aside....since when have you NOT known which rules
;    you break???? 
 

When I worked for you Tony ...I never did get my picture on the Employee of the
month plaque. Always got pipped at the post by another member of the A team.

Love 
Kevin

P.S. Hows Soho? Have you let all the rooms yet? I have some possible
tenants , but they would prefer to rent on a hourly rather than weekly basis.