Company car allowance - age clause

fatrab

Car_54 wrote: »

Strange as it seems, not everyone fulfils their contractual obligations. Suppose the employee has a valid MOT, but four bald tyres. When he ploughs into a bus stop, scattering nuns and kittens in all directions, is the employer in the clear?

Well in that event the employee would most likely be sacked and prosecuted I'd imagine.

Every month when I submit my business mileage I need to tick a little box that says my car is roadworthy. Other than supplying an MOT certificate I've never been asked to provide any other verification that my car is roadworthy and I don't see what other steps an employer could reasonably take to ensure roadworthiness of an employees private car on business use. I think we're confusing a few separate issues here.

Have you had company car allowance? If so, what were the rules at your company? I've worked for 3 large multi-national construction firms in the past 10 years and the policies were similar at each. I don't think they'd all be in breach of H&S regs.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

As people have said, it is an health and safety issue - the employer is paying for the car so is acquiring a duty of care that the car it is allowing you is safe to drive. You will acquire other duties, like proving it is properly serviced, maintained and insured.

Also, make sure that you are up to date on tax liabilities, there is a nasty catch relating to where there is a car allowance or company car option where you can end up paying tax on the higher of the two even if you chose the other option but it is so bizarre I've not got my head round it.

jimjames

IanMSpencer wrote: »

As people have said, it is an health and safety issue - the employer is paying for the car so is acquiring a duty of care that the car it is allowing you is safe to drive. You will acquire other duties, like proving it is properly serviced, maintained and insured.

But that is nothing to do with the age of the car. An older car can still have multiple airbags and ABS etc. Our car is paid by car allowance and is 16 years old, only requirement is that it must have 4 doors

Money_Grabber13579

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Also, make sure that you are up to date on tax liabilities, there is a nasty catch relating to where there is a car allowance or company car option where you can end up paying tax on the higher of the two even if you chose the other option but it is so bizarre I've not got my head round it.

Yep, think that’s part of a wider change to the benefit in kind rules for cars, where there is a salary sacrifice arrangement in place I.e. where an employee can choose to forego an amount of salary and instead receive another benefit, in this case, a car.

In that case, the employee will either be taxed at 20%/40%/45% on the amount of cash they have given up as part of the salary sacrifice arrangement or the benefit in kind value of the car, which is the retail price multipled by a given percentage based on emissions, whichever is higher.

Previously, the taxable amount was based on the benefit in kind value, but as emissions have dropped quite considerably, it was creating an incentive for employees to take out company cars again, which is against government policy and has been for a long time (to incentivise company car schemes)

DD265

I had a good chat with HR, they explained why they couldn't make an exception (not fair on everybody else) and I explained why I wasn't able to change cars right now. They do allow a grace period, and my age limit would actually have been 8 years, not the standard 6, but it still doesn't fit timing wise or financially. So no car allowance for me, and panic over. Thanks for all the advice.

In terms of car maintenance/tax/insurance; I do all that anyway and would continue to do so car allowance or not, old or young car. I get irrationally annoyed at people who break down in the motorway roadworks where there's no hard shoulder so I do what I can to not be one of them!