Cutting tax

Cutting tax

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Fuel Card - Claiming Tax??

Hi Room,
I have been using a Fuel card to pay for my business and Private miles for the last 3 years, in 2008 I did speak to the tax office about claiming some Tax back for my business miles but I received some bad advice from the Tax helpline and they said there was nothing I could claim.

For the past 3 years I have been getting tax bills and this year they gave me another tax bill for underpaid tax (on my part) of £1500.

I have asked around and spoken to the Tax office and it does seem like I should be claiming some tax back on the business miles I am doing.

Therefore today I decided to amend my tax returns for the last 3 years, I was armed with my P60 for each year, and the only P11 that I could find for 2009-10.

I keep good records of my millage and I added up my mileage for 2009-10 and it totalled:

- 10,000 miles @ x.40p
- 311 miles @ x 25p
- This is a total of £4,078

When I was doing the Self assessment I got to the part where is asked for expenses so I added in the figure above of £4,078 and it calculated that it owes me over £2000 back in overpaid tax. This is great but I don’t feel confident that I have done this correctly and really don’t want to fiddle the system and then end up getting a large bill further down the road.

My P11D for 2009-10 says my fuel cost me a total of £3,941 this is lower that the calculation I did above and also included Private and business miles, so which figure should I be using?

If you need more information please let me know, any help in setting me striaght would be great!!

Many thanks,

Iain

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Comments

  • Posts: 136 Forumite
    Hi,

    I have a fuel card too but its my understanding that you can not claim anything back for business miles.

    Because you have a card that pays for your private fuel the government sees this as a benefit in kind, as your company is kind of giving you extra cash to pay for your private fuel, its because of this you get taxed and its not related how much you drive for your company.

    Let me know if you find a loophole, because I would like some tax back!
    To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems!:beer:
  • Posts: 7,957 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 15 May 2011 at 7:22PM
    There seems to be some confusion here...
    40p/25p a mile is when you are using your own car and your own fuel for business miles.
    What you are doing is getting free fuel for your private miles as well as business ones?
    This is then benefit which goes on your p11d. You can return mileage log book with split private/business miles and get some credit towards the business miles done.
    But that depends on how is this benefit recorded..do you get car as well?
    Do you get p11d every year from employer?
  • Posts: 7,957 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    toastydave wrote: »
    Hi,

    I have a fuel card too but its my understanding that you can not claim anything back for business miles.

    Because you have a card that pays for your private fuel the government sees this as a benefit in kind, as your company is kind of giving you extra cash to pay for your private fuel, its because of this you get taxed and its not related how much you drive for your company.

    Let me know if you find a loophole, because I would like some tax back!

    Doesn't your company let you repay private miles done?then you wouldn't pay benefit on fuel...
    That is the easiest way to avoid it!!
  • Posts: 7,957 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Basic rules:
    If you get car and fuel (recorded on p11d in car part) then you pay tax on car and according to car flat rate on fuel,no matter how much free fuel you get.
    The only way out is to repay private fuel and then you avoid benefit on it.
    If you however have own car/company allowance for car and fuel card,then the actual amount spent on fuel is recorded on p11d (in expenses section) and you can notify HMRC that part of this expense was for business (and proof) and pay only the amount on the actual benefit (private miles) you got.
  • Hi all, thanks for your comments.

    The only P11 I can currently put my hands on says that my Fuel cost me £3941, now as far as the company and the Tax office know all of the fuel I put onto my Fuel Card was private miles. However 75% of the fuel I have used my Fuel Card to pay for was business miles and therefore I shouldn’t be taxed on it, as paying for business miles shouldn’t be classed as a benefit in kind, only my private mile should be classed as a benefit.

    I have Car allowance and the car is owned by me.

    I have had so much conflicting advice on this subject; I am going to speak to some HR/payroll people in our HQ tomorrow to see what I need to do.

    Once I find out I will let you all know.
  • Posts: 2,285 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Right, you supply the car and your employer pays for all the fuel. You also get a car allowance which is presumably paid with your salary and is taxed.
    The simplest way to deal with it is as you outlined in your opening post.
    You claim business miles at 40 ppm and 25ppm.
    You pay tax on the total fuel paid for by your employer.
    It really doesn't matter that your claim to tax relief (on mileage) comes to more than your benefit on fuel supplied. The two are not directly related.
    You can do all sorts of clever things like apportioning the fuel supplied between business and private use so that you pay (benefit) tax only on the private fuel but you would then have to reduce your tax relief claim for business mileage to reflect that your employer supplied the business fuel, not you.
    Take your time to understand this, its your money.
    Some of the earlier advice you were given relates to people who have company cars and does not apply to you.
  • Posts: 7,957 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    As Jimmo says-if it is your car (which it is,even though you get car allowance- that is fully taxed and therefore for all purposes it is only extra wage and it is your car) then it seems HMRC people were confused about the car (and therefore fuel).
    What you need to do now is to calculate business amout of miles and tell HMRC that some of those miles were for business.
  • Posts: 8,150 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Do you not report your private/business mileage to your employer?

    Surely it would be easier to do this and have the employer submit a S336 claim when submitting the P11d.
    [SIZE=-1]To equate judgement and wisdom with occupation is at best . . . insulting.
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  • Hi, can anyone help or ease my mind????
    Since reading the posts about fuel/company cars and tax I'm sure I've missed a trick......
    1) For 5 years I had a company financed MONDEO 2.0 diesel and a fuel card. I had to declare my business and private mileage each month to Arval MCS - I didn't do much private as I tended to use the wife's run around. If i used the company car for private use the amount would be deducted from my monthly salary via MCS info.
    But the issue is my tax code was virtually a negative number meaning I paid a lot of tax - I have all my records, believe or not, and wondered if I could claim anything from the tax man? My pay is £40k +

    2) In January 2012 I transferred to another part of the company whose car policy is different again. They provided me a car....Avensis 2.0D but I have to claim my business mileage back. Now the trip to work and back costs around £30 and my boss won't let me claim this back as business mileage (he will only let me claim for journeys to and from customers) - No Negotiation!
    Question is - can/could I claim anything?

    Note: so fed up with this and other things not to mention that I'm leaving the company ASAP as I have found a new job...

    Many thanks in anticipation for anyone's help.
  • Posts: 7 Forumite
    edited 17 July 2012 at 6:47PM
    This is an interesting subject.

    I have a company car and fuel card which pays for all my fuel. I then declare monthly what mileage i have done for business use and the difference is said to be private mileage.... for instance if i do 1000 miles in a month and 950 are business miles, therefore 50 are personal.

    I'm realy behind declaring my milages so i believe it all goes down as personal. I've done 80,000 miles in the past 3 years but have only declared about 40,000 of it (which runs up to October last year).

    Is there a risk that i'm going to get a huge tax bill to make up? or the reverse that i might get some back.

    As a basic guide i would expect 90% of the 80k miles to be business.
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