HN Explorer

Ask HN: Should I use my own device (laptop) or company-supplied one for work?

3 points by nelsonic ↗ HN
As a software engineer working as a contractor, given the option of using their own device or a company-supplied one what are the pros/cons?

Thanks!

I've captured my initial thoughts on this topic: https://github.com/nelsonic/nelsonic.github.io/issues/857 but very keen to hear the thoughts of the HN community before making up my mind.

4 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 22.1 ms ] thread
jleyank
For ip sake I would do work and only work stuff in the corporate asset and totally non work stuff on you own. This includes web browsing and email. Overly cautious, yeah, but keeping things separate strikes me as a good thing and putting the heavy wear on “their” property also seems useful.
nelsonic
This makes perfect sense. Thanks!
AngeloR
(Canada Specific) There can be additional tax implications depending on if you're contracting under your own name vs. a company. Using materials supplied from the companies you're contracting from can get you labeled as a Personal Services Business and not a corporation essentially treating corporation income as your personal income. This means you'd be subjected to personal income rates vs. corporation.

It's important to note it's not just this one thing that can do it, but there's a collection of things that can get you labeled as a PSB.

nelsonic
Wow! That's very interesting. Quite the Tax implication! Wonder if it's only in Canada ...