Company Van, do I pay tax??

watcher27

Hi
I was given a company fiest van & fuel card to commute to work & do the occasional delivery back in September, but have so far paid NO tax at all!?
It's been mentioned to me that I should be, so have been looking into this and it's all very confusing, but it seems according to this document that I DON'T pay tax on the van?!
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vans/vans-info.pdf


The section in question reads:
"When is there a tax charge on a company van?
Employees pay tax on a company van if they or a member of
their family or household make private use of it. If the
employee has the van mainly for work journeys (for example,
delivering goods or making calls to customers), and the only
private use is commuting, there is no tax to pay.
If there is other private use, tax is payable unless this private
use is insignificant (see ‘What is insignificant private use?’).

What is insignificant private use?
Private use is insignificant if:
• it is very much the exception to the normal use
• it is intermittent and irregular, and
• it lasts only for short periods of time on odd occasions
during the year."

So, the van is used for commuting and I am allowed to use it for private use but I don't as its pretty pointless as it only has 2 seats, which wont fit my family etc. I may very occasional use it to run up the shops for milk etc if we run out in the evening or to pick up something large bought on ebay (happened once).

Thoughts? Obviously I don't want to pay tax (who does?), but also I want to be legal & honest!

Cheers

BeenThroughItAll

Doesn't read as though you should, but I'm no expert. Only tip I would give you is to keep records of mileage used for work and personal, so if the taxman comes knocking you can show what you've been using the vehicle for and whether it's 'insignificant' or not.

rexmedorum

watcher27 wrote: »

Hi
I was given a company fiest van & fuel card to commute to work & do the occasional delivery back in September, but have so far paid NO tax at all!?
It's been mentioned to me that I should be, so have been looking into this and it's all very confusing, but it seems according to this document that I DON'T pay tax on the van?!
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vans/vans-info.pdf


The section in question reads:
"When is there a tax charge on a company van?
Employees pay tax on a company van if they or a member of
their family or household make private use of it. If the
employee has the van mainly for work journeys (for example,
delivering goods or making calls to customers), and the only
private use is commuting, there is no tax to pay.
If there is other private use, tax is payable unless this private
use is insignificant (see ‘What is insignificant private use?’).

What is insignificant private use?
Private use is insignificant if:
• it is very much the exception to the normal use
• it is intermittent and irregular, and
• it lasts only for short periods of time on odd occasions
during the year."

So, the van is used for commuting and I am allowed to use it for private use but I don't as its pretty pointless as it only has 2 seats, which wont fit my family etc. I may very occasional use it to run up the shops for milk etc if we run out in the evening or to pick up something large bought on ebay (happened once).

Thoughts? Obviously I don't want to pay tax (who does?), but also I want to be legal & honest!

Cheers

Classicly vague that!

LandyAndy

watcher27 wrote: »

Hi
I was given a company fiest van & fuel card to commute to work & do the occasional delivery back in September, but have so far paid NO tax at all!?
It's been mentioned to me that I should be, so have been looking into this and it's all very confusing, but it seems according to this document that I DON'T pay tax on the van?!
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vans/vans-info.pdf


The section in question reads:
"When is there a tax charge on a company van?
Employees pay tax on a company van if they or a member of
their family or household make private use of it. If the
employee has the van mainly for work journeys (for example,
delivering goods or making calls to customers), and the only
private use is commuting, there is no tax to pay.
If there is other private use, tax is payable unless this private
use is insignificant (see ‘What is insignificant private use?’).

What is insignificant private use?
Private use is insignificant if:
• it is very much the exception to the normal use
• it is intermittent and irregular, and
• it lasts only for short periods of time on odd occasions
during the year."

So, the van is used for commuting and I am allowed to use it for private use but I don't as its pretty pointless as it only has 2 seats, which wont fit my family etc. I may very occasional use it to run up the shops for milk etc if we run out in the evening or to pick up something large bought on ebay (happened once).

Thoughts? Obviously I don't want to pay tax (who does?), but also I want to be legal & honest!

Cheers

There is no doubt in my mind that you should not be paying tax.


The van is used for commuting and business and the private use you describe clearly falls within the definition of 'insignificant'

Bean_Counter

I concur that you should not be paying tax. The one instance is to collect an ebay purchase purchase is definitely incidental, although I might be a bit quieter on the milk collection, but overall you should be fine.

LandyAndy

Bean_Counter wrote: »

I concur that you should not be paying tax. The one instance is to collect an ebay purchase purchase is definitely incidental, although I might be a bit quieter on the milk collection, but overall you should be fine.

if two accountants agree it must be right.:D

System

Commuting is no longer a taxable benefit so you are fine:


http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vans/employee-guidance.htm

Bigphil1474

I agree with most, no tax to pay. Word of warning though. A colleague of mine who didn't have a work van ended up having years of bother with HMRC as our employer had used the wrong code - should have been tax in relation to using own car for work rather than company van. Every year for about 5 years he'd get his P11 (??) showing tax allowance reduction due to having a work van. If you want to avoid lengthy arguments with the tax man, I would keep some decent records which show mileage for work and commuting, and incidental mileage as minimised.