Losing Money on Company Car, advice?

akira181

This has probably been asked before but a search didn!!!8217;t turn up anything recent, so I thought I!!!8217;d check if there!!!8217;s more up-to-date advice.

In my last job, I used my own car (which I still haven!!!8217;t sold unfortunately) and with the better pence per mile rate for personal cars, I was able to break even after repairs. Now, I appear to be losing money just to do my work. I started a new job 6 months ago and it came with a company car, a 1.6L VW diesel. I claim expenses monthly at the HMRC rate of £0.09 per mile (no fuel card) and I!!!8217;ve noticed in the last few expense reports that my fuel receipts total far more than what I get in expenses. Last month alone, I spent £130 in fuel and only getting £53 back on expenses. My personal mileage is around half of what my business mileage is, so I!!!8217;m definitely losing out. £50 in March at least.

Now considering that the Inland Revenue rate of £0.09 has been around since at least 2006, when fuel was around £0.92 a litre, that works out at roughly 46mpg to break even, which is quite achievable. At today!!!8217;s price of around £1.20 a litre, you need to get 60.6mpg just to break even. In my company car, I get around 58mpg on the motorway taking it easy, and 43 in town, again taking it easy. Less if the car is cold. That!!!8217;s an average of 50.5mpg. I think expecting 60+mpg completely unrealistic, especially since WhatCar.com!!!8217;s best True MPG car (Vaxhaul Astra 1.6 CDTi) only gets 56.3mpg (combined town and rural driving). The £0.09 rate hasn!!!8217;t come close to keeping up with the rise of fuel costs (even though oil prices are a fraction of what they once were).

Is there anything I can do to recoup some of the losses? How can we petition Inland Revenue to update the rate against current fuel prices?

ohreally

Ask your employer to provide a fuel card and only use the vehicle for business purposes.

fatrab

Form P87 from HMRC
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-income-tax-relief-for-your-employment-expenses-p87#how-to-claim-tax-relief-on-work-related-expenses

BoGoF

How much fuel does your tank hold and how much to fill?

What mileage do you get from a full tank?

onomatopoeia99

akira181 wrote: »

I claim expenses monthly at the HMRC rate of £0.09 per litre

A litre of diesel costs you around £1.20 and you get £0.09?

Have to admit I thought the HMRC rate was per mile, not per litre, but I don't do business travel.

Robin9

Should be 45 p per mile.

sheramber

For company cars the mileage rate for a diesel car 1600cc is 0.9 per mile.( not per litre) As there are no other running expenses with a company car the OP cannot claim any additional relief.

How the rate is worked out is explained here

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advisory-fuel-rates/how-advisory-fuel-rates-are-calculated

BoGoF

Robin9 wrote: »

Should be 45 p per mile.

No it's not.

DoaM

Mean MPG for up to 1.6L diesel is 71.1? What were they smoking when they came up with that figure? (Presumably smoking the same weed as the manufacturers when they published their consupmtion figures). Even the Applied MPG doesn't match anywhere near reality.

Does 71.1 mpg relate to the mean Extra-Urban published consumption figures of all vehicles up to 1.6L? I can't see how it could be related to the mean of the published Combined Cycle consumption figures (which is what should have been used).

fatrab

sheramber wrote: »

As there are no other running expenses with a company car the OP cannot claim any additional relief.

On P87 guidance there is now the following statement:


Using a company vehicle for work

You’ll need a summary of your calculation with any claim for relief on what you’ve spent.

akira181

BoGoF wrote: »

How much fuel does your tank hold and how much to fill?

What mileage do you get from a full tank?

I haven't filled my tank in a long time cause I realised that the weight of a full tank costs me roughly 6 to 10mpg and makes the 1.6L engine really sluggish.

From memory, last time I done a full tank, it was around £80 and I think I got 600 to 650 before the fuel light came on.

sheramber wrote: »

For company cars the mileage rate for a diesel car 1600cc is 0.9 per mile.( not per litre) As there are no other running expenses with a company car the OP cannot claim any additional relief.

How the rate is worked out is explained here

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advisory-fuel-rates/how-advisory-fuel-rates-are-calculated

oops, yeah, I meant 9p a mile, not litre. OP corrected. Thanks for the link.

On what planet does a 1.6L diesel car get a mean of 71.1mpg? Maybe on a rolling road in the lab where a computer does the acceleration and never uses the brakes. I don't even think car manufacturers have the gall to claim their car can do 70+mpg day to day driving.

I think it's just the Tories stepping on the working class again. The supervisors and boss (in my company at least) drive 2L diesel Audi's. At 11p a mile, all they got to achieve is 49mpg at current fuel prices to break even, which is easy.

Is it possible to lodge a complaint about their unrealistic calculations drawn from thin air?