Company Car

Icarus500

Hi

I have a question regarding company cars

I'm currently receiving a cash allowance of £4k p.a.
From that allowance, I fund my own car/servicing/tax/insurance, basically everything.

I do receive fuel allowance and parking charges on top of that.

My insurance is £1500pa (soon to increase), tax £200pa, car payments £4500pa and service costs and tyres/brakes on top

This £4k is obviously taxed as income.

I'm considering a company car, as they pay insurance and everything else to do with the car.
The car itself won't be as nice as I have now, but I'll live with that.
I will get less of a fuel allowance also

I am aware there is a BIK tax to pay on the P11D value of the car.

My question is, has anyone made the switch and is there anything I may be missing in my calculations which may trip me up down the line?

Sorry for length of post and thanks in advance to any help

Any

The BIK very much depends on the car you choose.
The main factor is the list price (or P11D price) and the CO2 of the vehicle. This makes massive difference.

Have a look at comcar.co.uk at the different BIK you will end up paying according to car.

Or buy Whatcar magazine and have a look at the last pages, it is there as well.

But given the costs you are incurring, you would have to drive a something very expensive and with very high CO2 to get more expensive company car:-)))

Allowance usually only makes sense when people don't mind driving older cheaper car which comes cheaper long term.

Company car restricts your choice according to what company allows you to have, that is the main drawback.

saintjammyswine

If you can get away with a smaller car or a hybrod you can usually make money on the allowance compared to having a company car. I previously had a co. car, VW Passat fully expensed (private mileage excuded) and a colleague had a private Ford Focus with allowance and by getting good deals on servicing and driving carefully he would come out about £200 per month better than me. The downside is that when his engine went he had to pay about £2k for repairs etc. So I always go for expensed c/cars for less stress and knowing exactly what my outgoings are.