Car allowance vs company car WWYD?

AnotherJoe

If it's a lot of driving, the mileage via depreciation will destroy any car you buy yourself, so get a company car where you don't care what the mileage is.

Red-Squirrel_2

bigadaj wrote: »

It's worth keeping an eye on your fuel useage, as above you probably need to be doing over 20000 miles a year to benefit and most of this should be personal as you'd expect to be reimbursed for your business mileage, excluding commuting.

There's no way I'd ever do 20,000 miles a year for personal use, I do about 4-5000 most years!

Seems mad and a bit depressing that a 'perk' can actually make you worse off.

bigadaj

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

There's no way I'd ever do 20,000 miles a year for personal use, I do about 4-5000 most years!

Seems mad and a bit depressing that a 'perk' can actually make you worse off.

Yes, you've got to do the calculations.

Have a word with the. And it might be able to be changed.

Red-Squirrel_2

If I get the job I might be back here with the T&Cs of the company car asking for more advice!

Red-Squirrel_2

Boring update!

So I got the job, and my offer pack came in the post with all the details of the car policy. The car allowance is £300 a month which is not enough really to buy a newer car and keep it on the road when I'm likely to be doing tens of thousands of miles. The policy states that if you want to use your own car the company have to approve it, and I strongly suspect my battered but trusty old banger won't pass muster sadly!

So I'm going for the company car. It'll be insured, taxed, serviced, and new tyres etc. at company expense and looks like the most stress free way to go, despite the heavy tax. I'll have a fuel card to pay for all my fuel and will have to keep track of my personal mileage so I can pay it back, which will suck but I suppose is better than being out of pocket and having to claim back mileage a month later.

I plan to SORN my current car, and stick it in the garage in case I don't like the job!

Thanks for all the advice, it was definitely helpful to somebody new to this sort of thing.

sillygoose

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Boring update!

So I got the job, and my offer pack came in the post with all the details of the car policy. The car allowance is £300 a month which is not enough really to buy a newer car and keep it on the road when I'm likely to be doing tens of thousands of miles. The policy states that if you want to use your own car the company have to approve it, and I strongly suspect my battered but trusty old banger won't pass muster sadly!

So I'm going for the company car. It'll be insured, taxed, serviced, and new tyres etc. at company expense and looks like the most stress free way to go, despite the heavy tax. I'll have a fuel card to pay for all my fuel and will have to keep track of my personal mileage so I can pay it back, which will suck but I suppose is better than being out of pocket and having to claim back mileage a month later.

I plan to SORN my current car, and stick it in the garage in case I don't like the job!

Thanks for all the advice, it was definitely helpful to somebody new to this sort of thing.

I suspect the fairly low allowance is because if you take the company car you will pay a substantial amount of company car tax (which is set to keep rising quite quickly next few years, year on year!!) ..if you take an allowance you won't pay company car tax so many companies factor that in..

So they consider you have say £300 per month allowance and maybe £150 per month the company car tax ~would~ have cost you, so you have £450 to spend running the car. ) or whatever depending on the numbers)

Personally I would jump at a cash allowance but I am not allowed one and have to have a company car, its not all roses to own one as there are issues, and I would rather run my own any day..

Good luck in your job, congratulations!

facade

Is there any possibility of never, not ever, using the company car for yourself, including commuting, as then you wouldn't have to pay company car tax.

This would mean leaving it at work and driving your own car. Not sure what driving straight to a client from your house would count as though..

I couldn't bear the thought of paying a load of tax for someone else's car that I only have to do them a favour!

bob_a_builder

Have you chosen the car yet ?

Where is comes on the government G/km CO2 table, will massively affect how much tax you will pay - [here]
- notice how they all ramp upwards
In low tax order its roughly
phev , hybrid, diesel, petrol

This site will give you a very quick ( or more detailed if you prefer) idea of how much tax you will pay - [here]

basill

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

I'll have a fuel card to pay for all my fuel and will have to keep track of my personal mileage so I can pay it back, which will suck but I suppose is better than being out of pocket and having to claim back mileage a month later.

If you do a small private mileage and have a fuel card, reimbursing your employer for the private miles will save you a substantial amount of tax!


http://comcar.co.uk/fuel/benefit/

B

Red-Squirrel_2

basill wrote: »

If you do a small private mileage and have a fuel card, reimbursing your employer for the private miles will save you a substantial amount of tax!


http://comcar.co.uk/fuel/benefit/

B

Thank you, that's very helpful, and tells me that I am better off paying for my private miles, as I will be!