I am provided with a car, i do 25-30k per annum. This is all business miles (all logged) only with no private mileage. I do not have any Benefit from having the vehicle. On the contrary I have to run a proper car as my own. With a normal company car i wouldn't need a second car for private mileage, so the imposition of company car tax would be a second hit on my finances. I'd be paying the taxman for the priviledge of having a car on the driveway, when i'm not working.
the car has company stickers all over it, including the rear side windows, and a promotional 'box' on the roof!!
I travel throughout the North - from Hull and Huddersfield in the south and Glasgow and Edinburgh in the north. I am sometimes asked to work outside this area.
I am a recruitment consultant and visit all the major towns and cities throughout this area, so the travelling i do is clearly not commuting. I also use a room in my home as an office (i need to use this office daily after 'work' for reports, communicating with Head Office etc., and occassionally when i don't have interviews booked).
I've looked at the inland revenue website in chapeters 11 & 12 which relate to company car tax and the criteria appear to be :
availability for private use / not normal commuting.
Do you feel this situation will allow me to avoid company car tax liability - or can you advise who i might contact in this regard? I appreciate i can contact the IR, but feel that, initially at least, they will not receive a request to avoid tax cheerily!!
Many thanks in anticipation
Keith Graham
Keith Graham
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Replies (4)
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What does your employer say?
As your employer will have to consider what to put on the P11d it would be useful to know what they intend to do. Whilst their view is no more definitive than the Revenue's, they are in possession of more facts than any of the respondents here and it will be much harder to convince the Revenue that there is no car benefit if your employer has completed a P11d stating the opposite.
Area workplace
For completeness; - it sounds as if you have an employment based on an area. The area will therefore be considered your permanent workplace, and if you live outside the area any travel from home to that area would be private travel, so it wouldn't work. However, if you live within the area, I agree that:
a) having a direction to say that you cannot use the car privately at all;
b) having that backed up by a restriction on the insurance; and
c) abiding by it;
should result in you not being chargeable on the benefit in kind. But it will probably be a bit of a battle.
sorry...
...but you have answered your own question by stating that the car is in the drive. It is thus available for private use and you suffer the full hit. Quote: "I'd be paying the taxman for the priviledge (sic.) of having a car on the driveway"
You could avoid liability if it were a pool car ie if you never took it home but it stayed on company premises at night etc (there is more to the definition than this - come back after Friday for more details).
Mmm...
Phil is correct, but there is a [***] of hope. If your employer specifically prohibits you using the car for private use and you can demonstrate that you have never used it for private use, then you might persuade the Revenue. The fact that the car is "logo'd up" might help your case.
But one trip to the paper shop would invalidate your claim.