What happens to items I’ve expensed when I quit my telecommuting job?
I’ve been telecommuting for a year with a company I’ve worked for for 5 years. I am half-way across the country from any of my company’s facilities. When I moved here last year and started working from home, I purchased computer equipment and furniture for business use and was reimbursed for it. Now I think I will be leaving this company. How should I expect to return these assets to them? A couple of the computer peripherals can and will be shipped to them, but other items are impossible or pointless to ship, like furniture or a land line phone that is not compatible with their phone systems. Will I be asked to pay for these items? If so, how should they be depreciated? I have done some research and found that office furniture is typically assumed to have a 7-year lifespan for tax reasons, but I highly doubt my IKEA floor model desk will last that long, and I can’t imagine getting a 85% return on any of these things, furniture or electronics, if I were to resell them.
Tags: assets, computer equipment, computer peripherals, desk, floor model, land line phone, lifespan, office furniture, working from home
October 17th, 2009 at 18:30
My daughter works at home for a major insurance company, who furnished the desk, office chair, file cabinet, computer, printer, FAX, phone and shredder. She was told if she quit before 3 years she’d have to return all of it, but after that she’d only have to return the computer. Check with your company. They may have a similar arrangement. I agree, it would be a waste of money to ship it all back to them after being used for 5 years.