Taxation of work phones

The individual benefits

Employer-paid phone available for private use

You must pay tax on DKK 3,100 (2023) per year, if the university makes a telephone available to you for private use at home – either through mobile telephony or landline telephony.

The value includes the phone itself – including small hand-held computers mainly used for telephony, such as smartphones and PDAs – as well as expenses for registration, subscription, call charges etc.

Work phone not available for private use

You will not be taxed, if the phone is a work phone which is not available for private use. This also includes work phones with two SIM cards.

In such cases, you must sign a solemn declaration. In isolated cases, you may use the phone to make private calls, go online, send text messages or emails without having to pay tax.

Computer with standard equipment

You will not be taxed on an employer-paid computer intended for work. The university can make a computer available tax-free to the employee in his/her home if the computer can be used to work from home. Even modest business use of the computer is sufficient for the employee to be exempt from tax.

Tablets are considered computers for tax purposes. As a result, they are not taxable if they are intended for work use.

Nor will you be taxed on standard computer equipment such as a computer screen, printer, software etc of a normal size and standard.

Internet

The university can make an internet connection available to the employee in her/his home, tax-exempt, if it can be used to access the university's network. This means that a home workstation has been set up from which the employee can access the programs and documents which the employee has access to from his/her computer at work.

If you do not have access to the university’s network, you will be taxed on DKK 3,100 per year.

Availability of multimedia products for part of the year

If your phone is available for private use for only part of the year, you will only be taxed corresponding to the number of commenced months in which you can use the phone for private purposes.

Example: An employee is employed as of 15 March and receives an employer-paid phone which may be used for private purposes. The employee must therefore pay taxes on the phone as from 1 March as tax is paid per commenced month.

If the employee has several different benefits at his/her disposal

You must pay tax on a total of DKK 3,100 per year if you have an employer-paid phone available for private use and an internet connection (no access to your employer’s network from home).

If the employee has several benefits of the same kind at his/her disposal

If several phones or computers are made available to the employee, there must be work-related grounds for doing so. This is determined specifically on a case-by-case basis.

If there are no work-related grounds for making several phones available for private use, the costs incidental to the additional phone(s) are taxed separately. You must report the value of the staff benefit to SKAT as B income exclusive of labour market contributions. This also applies to computers including equipment and internet connections.

Spouse discount

You will be able to obtain a spouse discount if you live with your spouse at the end of the income year and if both of you have an employer-paid phone available for private use. The taxable value of an employer-paid phone which may be used for private purposes is reduced by 25% for each of you. It is a condition for the reduction that you and your spouse’s total taxable value of the benefits prior to the reduction corresponds to at least DKK 3,800. (2020). The reduction is calculated automatically.