Posted By Claire Patterson
Hi everyone,

Landed myself a new job a couple of weeks ago and take delivery of my first ever company car, soooo excited.

Can I have some advice please, these may be silly questions but I dont know and will never know if I dont ask so here goes;

1. Can I sell my old car now and use this one for stuff outside of work?

2. Do I claim for petrol for just work related travel, keep details of travel etc?

3. I have been told I must inform the tax office as this is a perk of a kind, what are the implications?

4. If I get given a fuel card, how can I split the cost between work travel and non work travel?

5. Cant think of anything else at the moment but any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Claire P

Posted By anon1234
Simple answer is ask your new HR team.

1. Most company cars are also available for private use - but in some cases this is not the case - ask your new HR team

2. Will depend on whether you have fuel card etc. - However if you don't get a fuel card chances are you can only claim fuel used for business mileage at agreed rate - note these days you have to generally support claims with a VAT receipt covering the amount of fuel used - again check with your HR team

3. Your new company will inform the tax office as it is a taxable benefit but to reduce the likelihood of getting an unexpected tax bill at the end of the year it is probably worth informing the inland revenue - the amount of taxable benefit will depend on the value (new - RRP OTR) of the car and the CO2 emmissions - your company should be able to provide the details

4. A fuel card is a taxable beenfit based ont he CO2 emmisions - the only need to split business and private travel would be in respect of the requireemnts of your comapny and whether they claim back the VAT on the fuel costs associated with business mileage - most large companies do, so you will need to know what business mileage you are doing for these purposes

5. Personally I think there are more up sides than down sides in getting a company car but there are a lot of factors to consider

Posted By J Knight
Diane,

For me its a no-brainer; company car any day, for precisely the reasons you give. A private lease is a viable alternative, but in my view quite a bit more expensive.

I will pay about £50 a month for my next car in tax, plus usually about £90 for private mileage, and £4.50 premium for slightly better than standard spec. This amounts to £144.50, and that's for a new car, fully (comprehesively) insured and taxed, and all my private travel.

I know that sometimes people look at the tax all wrong. A friend of mine talked about a £2,000 tax hit for a company car, what he meant was that his allowance went down by £2,000; what that meant was an extra £500 tax; the allowance affects the tax paid at 25p, not the amount above the 40p threshold, as it comes off the 'bottom' of your earnings, if you like. He's a bright bloke, but maybe listens to the man in the pub too much sometimes,

John

Posted By anon1234
Note if you are over the 40% threshold it will be equivalent to a 40% tax rate not 25% although if you are only just over the 40% limit it may equate to soemthing in between - but agree it is not the whole £2000 or whatever the car is valued at - unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it my equivalent taxable benefit is significantly more than this

Posted By J Knight
Hi anon,

Yup, you're right, still, according to the AA that still makes my total car expenditure for the month about £174, and that includes all my personal mileage, tax, insurance and so on.

I did my initial calcs on the 25p rate, and hadn't appreciated that the hit is paid at the 40p rate I now qualify for. On the positive side, 25p is now 22, so for some people it'll be even cheaper.

Of course, one of the things in my favour is that working for a Charity means a) that our complany cars are basic and cheap and b) there's no peer pressure to go for the most expensive model we can afford. If I was driving a Passat my tax bill would be quite a bit higher,

John

Posted By Pierre de Carteret
You need ALL the information from your employer and then a weekend to absorb it combined with the information on Benefit In Kind (BIK) from our friendly tax man (or woman!).

There comes a point with most schemes when on one side you should take the money instead of the car, and on the other you'll take the car/fuel card.

Last time I looked at my company scheme if I did over 15k miles pa I would be better off taking a car and not the allowance. I'm sure that every scheme works out differently though!

All a bit academic though if you have to have the car - check on the fuel card though as the same applies on private mileage against business mileage and BIK costs.

Do try and save some money though as the tax person WILL mess your tax code up and gather it back in their normal fashion!

Question to everybody though - how many employers/lease companies provide basic training on the car when you take possession of it!?

Safe motoring.

Pierre

Posted By Dave Wilson
you pay a % of the book value of the car at new dependant on the CO2 emissions, this varies from 18% - 35%, so if you have an SUV with a petrol engine and the CO2 is high and your tax liability for this is 35% of the book price, you then get taxed at what your basic rate is so could be 40% of 35% of the book price with any extras.

You will also now get taxed at the same % as above of £14000 for fuel dependant on the CO2 emissions of the vehicle at what ever you pay tax.

This is designed to stop people getting big gas guzzlers and pusing you into smaller cars which are diesel.

Posted By John Caney
Company car v private???????

It all depends on how generous your employer is. Mine sticks 500 quid (taxable, I grant you) in my bank each month and pays for all the diesel. If I can't run a car on that and come out with a bit for myself and the bookies there must be something wrong, or I'm running a Ferrari (I'm not!). And at the end of the day, when I retire or get sacked, I've got my own car.

John