My business partner and I own a small company and have been doing this for the last five years. We both work from home and recently decided that we would have our home Internet and cell phones paid directly by the business.

Up until this point we had been paying those out-of-pocket. His Internet and phone costs are about 50% more than mine. I think that we should make changes in payroll so that we both now are having an equal benefit. He thinks that as this is a business expense, it shouldn’t matter. We purchase our computers, software, etc. through the business. So our Internet and phone is the same and I shouldn’t be given any extra money through payroll to equal out our Internet and phone expenses.

This feels unfair to me and I want to go back to paying out-of-pocket for our phone and Internet if our business dollars are going to be giving him that extra benefit. (He’s saving about $60 more a month than I am having the company pay internet/phone) Am I being ridiculous here? He has a good point about how we pay for our computers, laptops, through the business.