Trying to work out company car tax effect

gundo

Firstly apologies for the numptiness of this query.

I'm currently working in a temporary job (I was made redundant in January) which ends 31.8.06. Been for a job interview and I've been offered the job. The salary's the same as I'm on currently. My commute would go from a measily 100 miles week to 300+miles a week (up from 20minutes to 1hr each way). I'd have to visit other sites which are 70 and 30miles away from my normal workplace but I'd get fuel for that.

It's for a car dealership and I would get a car with the job (they advertised this as a benefit). I'm not fussed about cars really as long as they're reliable and not costing me too much to keep going (I have a powerful sports motorbike for entertainment purposes at weekends). The car's not optional. Would I end up being worse off financially than I am now, at the end of each month?

Obviously I'll save on the fact that I don't have to service it, get tyres, MOT it, insure it etc.

Finally I appreciate that a bird in the hand is better than one in bush and I dread ending up unemployed in Sept.

Would it be in order to ask them to up the salary on offer? They asked me at interview what salary I wanted and I hadn't thought about it so blurted out that I was earning so-and-so and that would be the minimum I'd accept but that's with a much smaller commute.

Your advice and comments would be appreciated.

JB2006

Company cars are not the benefit that they once were. A lot of employees now opt for a car allowance from their employer rather than a company car. This allowance is treated as additional salary and taxed with the rest of your monthly income.

gundo

I'll be doing the IT for a BMW dealership so I'm not sure they'd be offering me the choice of taking the car or not I reckon they'd rather I didn't turn up on site in my S-reg slightly tired looking Mondeo...

village_life

you really need to do the maths yourself to determine how much the car is going to cost you....

are you getting your company to pay for ALL of your fuel, or just the business mileage as that has a big impact too

ultimately you will pay a (probably hefty) amount in car tax for the car, however if you currently own and maintain a car the reduced stress and hassle may in some way mitigate this....

gundo

village_life wrote:

you really need to do the maths yourself to determine how much the car is going to cost you....

Actually I was thinking that once I've had the paperwork thru I'll ask them to tell me what my take home pay will be.

village_life wrote:

are you getting your company to pay for ALL of your fuel, or just the business mileage as that has a big impact too

ultimately you will pay a (probably hefty) amount in car tax for the car, however if you currently own and maintain a car the reduced stress and hassle may in some way mitigate this....

Not sure what the deal is but looking at the other posts tax on fuel etc I'd rather pay my own private mileage fuel otherwise the tax situation looks a bit complex.

A free car is a free car but as I've got a perfectly good one (I couldn't give a monkey's about having a Beemer, it's just a car after all) I'm not keen to take a job on to be worse off just so that I can drive a new car.

Thanks for the reply.