Can I claim anything after from purchase of car

asy1mpo

Hi

Sorting out my self assessment at the moment.

I purchased a car back in April 2012.

It is primarily used for private use.

However, it is occasionally used for business use - going to meetings, travel to clients offices (for work) etc.

I know I can claim for expenses.

So I can either claim for the mileage

OR

I can claim for (proportion of) all motor expenses like insurance, service, fuel etc.

However, can I claim anything from the purchase of the actual car - taking into account CO2 emissions and working out the proportion used for business.

Thanks in advance. (If there is a link to the HMRC web site confirming that would be great).

simba92

Signed up to the site just to reply to this.

You can claim a capital allowance which is a percentage (18% i think!!) of the value of your car. Like you say, you're also using it for private use so the capital allowance will then be apportioned to only include your business use.

Also worth knowing that if claiming capital allowances...when you sell your car, if its proceeds are more than the written down amount, you will be left with a balancing charge which is classed as taxable income.

Also, if you go the down the claim capital allowances route then you're stuck with that way. You cant switch back .

If you buy a new car with low co2 emissions then yes you get a FYA (first year allowance) which is 100% of the cars value. However seeing as you already own your car you wont get anything except a capital allowance and can use a percentage of insurance, fuel and other costs as expenses however this will have to be apportioned to the business use of the vehicle.

Work out both ways and see which works better for you.

Ive helped a couple of people with tax returns and it almost always works out better to use the annual mileage allowance of 45p per mile. Sometimes the difference is so small its not even worth the hassle and at other times 45p per mile works out better. Thats in my experience, However im no expert.

Hope this helps

asy1mpo

Thanks for your help!

So I can claim a capital allowance for the actual purchase of the car. So if the car was £10000 and 50% of its use is business, it would be £900 (assuming its 18% which I think it is).

Am I right in saying that I can claim the capital allowance AND "expenses".

By "expenses" I mean either (insurance, tax, service, fuel etc) OR mileage (work out the business mileage)??

So if my business mileage was 1000 miles, it would £450 so a grand total of £1350.

Or if I went down the other route and my motor expenses (insurance, tax, service etc) was £500 (but 50% is used for business so therefore £250) and grand total of £1150. It would therefore make sense to go down the business mileage route

Thanks

simba92 wrote: »

Signed up to the site just to reply to this.

You can claim a capital allowance which is a percentage (18% i think!!) of the value of your car. Like you say, you're also using it for private use so the capital allowance will then be apportioned to only include your business use.

Also worth knowing that if claiming capital allowances...when you sell your car, if its proceeds are more than the written down amount, you will be left with a balancing charge which is classed as taxable income.

Also, if you go the down the claim capital allowances route then you're stuck with that way. You cant switch back .

If you buy a new car with low co2 emissions then yes you get a FYA (first year allowance) which is 100% of the cars value. However seeing as you already own your car you wont get anything except a capital allowance and can use a percentage of insurance, fuel and other costs as expenses however this will have to be apportioned to the business use of the vehicle.

Work out both ways and see which works better for you.

Ive helped a couple of people with tax returns and it almost always works out better to use the annual mileage allowance of 45p per mile. Sometimes the difference is so small its not even worth the hassle and at other times 45p per mile works out better. Thats in my experience, However im no expert.

Hope this helps

anselld

Simpler just to claim 45p per mile for business mileage.

You cannot claim capital allowances plus 45p per mile.

Prothet_of_Doom

anselld wrote: »

Simpler just to claim 45p per mile for business mileage.

You cannot claim capital allowances plus 45p per mile.

I looked at this and the more miles I do of a business nature the more sensible this is.

It seemed that if my business bought the car and paid my work related petrol and all repairs and servicing and insurance, then I personally would have to pay company car tax and unless I was doing low miles and wanted a new car, then the 45p a mile was better from both financial and simplicity.

(25p a mile after 10K)

Rules for Vans are different

You'll notice that alot of plumbers and builders have cab crew 5 seat pick ups or Vans, and if you don't do any private miles then there is no tax implication at all.

simba92

Right back again. lol

You can claim 18% of the open market value of the car and split that to your business use.

For example.

You may have paid £10,000. But the market value is £6,000. So 18% of 6000 = 1080. 50% is business use so £540.
On top of that you can put in fuel, insurance, maintenance and running costs in expenses. These would also need to be split 50% So that only business use is included.

Its either that OR 45p per mile. So if you traveled eg. 2000 miles. Then it would come to £900 (45p x 2000miles).

You cant mix and match ie. claim a capital allowance and use the milage allowance as well. If you claim a capital allowance then you can put in the costs mentioned above, fuel, insurance etc. Whereas if you go down the milage allowance route then all you can claim is 45p per mile. no running costs, fuel, insurance or anything else this is because apparently the 45p already takes these costs into account.

You're getting a few comments here suggesting 45p is better. There is no "better" way. It depends on your costs the value of the car and your milage. As mentioned above work out both and see what works best for you.

zygurat789

simba92 wrote: »

Right back again. lol

You can claim 18% of the open market value of the car and split that to your business use.

For example.

You may have paid £10,000. But the market value is £6,000. So 18% of 6000 = 1080. 50% is business use so £540.
On top of that you can put in fuel, insurance, maintenance and running costs in expenses. These would also need to be split 50% So that only business use is included.

Its either that OR 45p per mile. So if you traveled eg. 2000 miles. Then it would come to £900 (45p x 2000miles).

You cant mix and match ie. claim a capital allowance and use the milage allowance as well. If you claim a capital allowance then you can put in the costs mentioned above, fuel, insurance etc. Whereas if you go down the milage allowance route then all you can claim is 45p per mile. no running costs, fuel, insurance or anything else this is because apparently the 45p already takes these costs into account.

You're getting a few comments here suggesting 45p is better. There is no "better" way. It depends on your costs the value of the car and your milage. As mentioned above work out both and see what works best for you.

I think you will find that you can only claim 8% of the cost (in first year) or residual value of car if the emissions are over 160 grs/km

simba92

Yeah. 18% WDA on a car with co2 emissions below 160. 8% WDA on anything higher than 160 and thats classed as special rate.

asy1mpo

OK. Thanks.

My car is below 160 CO2 emissions - or whatever the amount is so its 18%