Buying a car-best way?

shays_mum

Hi,
Pls can anyone advise....My friend is looking to buy a car via their business. It will be a joint family/business car.
Questions:
*What are the tax implications of this as they are a sole trader?.
*Can they claim vat back?
*Also, is there a minimum amount they need to use for the business?, as it might not be feasible to go into central london everyday with the congestion charge & parking costs etc.
Any other advice is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

iian

Hi

I cant say whats best for you but I can tell you what I have been advised. At the moment I own the car and claim an allowance of 40p per mile, which when you have a cheap car like mine to run is fine, and i can claim that upto 10000 miles. After 10000 miles the allowance goes down, not sure how much though. With regard to congestion charge and parking I claim for those as well. I use a mileage diary book which I fill in from my diary and using multimap (I know its not exact but I'll forget to work it out in the car).

The other thing to consider is that if the car costs £10,000, you can't claim all of that in the first year, you claim over a few years (this is a good thing as really your sales and profits should increase year on year). With regard to claiming the vat back, you can only do this if you are vat registered.

I am sure someone who knows more than me will be around later.

Ian