Individual vs. Corporate Cell phone ownership

President's Obama's new budget may repeal the Corporate cell phone tax. That may even the playing field from a tax perspective. However, what other liabilities should Corporations consider when deciding whether to own and manage employee cell phones or let the employees make their own cell phone choices?

Individual-liable pros:
*the company is not in the business of buying, replacing, and maintaining phones
* if there’s a problem with a user’s phone, that person has to work with his/her carrier and resolve the problem themselves
* the tax issue goes away
* the legal liability issue lessens, although it’s not completely eradicated. If an employee is using his/her own phone, but it has corporate email, calendar, etc. on it, the company can still be held liable in a lawsuit should the user be involved in an accident while using the phone. The legal folks on the list-serv can elaborate on this one.

Individual-liable cons:
* much less control over the costs of cell phone plans, as you noted below
* freedom of choice can lead you to allowing all kinds of phones, including Droids, iPhones, Pres, Nexus, etc. that may not be designed for an enterprise or workplace. If your team doesn’t have to support these or allow corporate email, etc. on any of them, and you’re only covering voice plan costs, it may not be a problem.
* the hidden “soft costs” of processing expense reports

Corporate-liable pros:
* use a corporate account to realize much better pricing
* no need to process those expense reports
* standardizing on specific phones

Corporate-liable cons:
* you’re in the cell phone business
* tax and legal liabilities
* the responsibility of reviewing and checking invoicing, and making sure users remain within policy boundaries