Taking my company car off me.

miss_zoeee

I work as a courier for a printing company and I have a company car to make the deliveries. I take the car home and I use for personal use at the weekends. I pay the tax on this and I also pay £16 a month directly out of wages for fuel contribution.

I am going away on holiday. I wouldn’t be using my car. It would be parked at my home address. My employer has said he will take the car off me to give to another employee so they don’t have to get the bus to and from work. The car will be parked up all day.

Can my employer do this? I had planned to use the car when I get home as I’m not back in work for a couple of days after my holiday. I pay the tax surely the car is mine so to speak.

Thanks in advance.

TELLIT01

Unless you have something in your contract to state the car is to be for your sole use there's nothing to stop the company passing the company car onto another company employee when you don't need it. When I had a company car I was expected to allow other employees to use it during the day if needed. The only caveat being that they must return it by the end of the working day and that I could include any mileage covered in my fuel figures each month.

Me2you

Have you negotiated and said the person can use it on the days you are away?

marliepanda

miss_zoeee wrote: »

Can my employer do this? I had planned to use the car when I get home as I’m not back in work for a couple of days after my holiday. I pay the tax surely the car is mine so to speak.

Do you pay anything else but the tax? If its tax only then I would not say the car is 'yours' who insures it? Who pays the capital cost of the car?

You say you have personal use on the weekend, is the company open then? If the weekend are NWD, then it makes sense that you can use it as you wish. Weekdays are working days, so it makes sense that the company can use their car to their advantage, rather than you using it for shopping or whatever.

Comms69

my concern is this- OP has this situation not come up before?


I would imagine it would have, so does that mean you are new to the role?

ReadingTim

It's a benefit provided to you, so can be altered or withdrawn as the company sees fit (subject to certain processes). Paying tax on this benefit does not make it yours and yours alone; so yes, the company can make the car available to someone else while you're away, but by the same token, you shouldn't expected to pay tax and fuel when you're away.

MataNui

ReadingTim wrote: »

Ibut by the same token, you shouldn't expected to pay tax and fuel when you're away.

Which i 100% agree with but i think would be impossible to administer. Pretty sure HMRC are not in the slightest geared up to the idea that a BIK can be a BIK today but not tomorrow, then it will be a BIK again the day after. I may be wrong here and would be happy to be corrected by someone who has experienced this but i dont think HMRC work BIK tax that way.



Which is why despite what everyone is suggesting (who probably have never actually had a 'company car') that if a 'company car' is provided (rather than use of a 'pool car' and BIK tax is payable its generally regarded as 'your' car. Otherwise its a 'pool car' and no BIK would be payable.

MataNui

marliepanda wrote: »

You say you have personal use on the weekend, is the company open then? If the weekend are NWD, then it makes sense that you can use it as you wish. Weekdays are working days, so it makes sense that the company can use their car to their advantage, rather than you using it for shopping or whatever.

This is one of the things i meant in my previous post. A 'company car' IS provided for your own use at the weekends (and by extension your holidays). Thats why you pay BIK on it (though the company may not subsidise fuel). You dont pay BIK on a car thats only used for work. Otherwise everyone in the country with a company car would need an additional car for their own personal use and i am pretty sure the number who have two cars for their own use (one company that they pay BIK on and another that they 100% fund themselves) is pretty tiny.


#Edit#
Not saying the employer 'Cant' do this. They can pretty much do what they want just that it wouldn't be expected that they do this. Depending on the BIK payments it may be better for the OP to hand the car back if this becomes the norm.

miss_zoeee

No I haven’t negotiated and I haven’t spoken my colleague yet about taking it home.

miss_zoeee

Me2you wrote: »

Have you negotiated and said the person can use it on the days you are away?

No I haven’t negotiated anything and I haven’t yet spoken to my colleague about him taking the car home.

miss_zoeee

Comms69 wrote: »

my concern is this- OP has this situation not come up before?


I would imagine it would have, so does that mean you are new to the role?

I’m not new to the role, no. I’ve been with the company 7 years.
Over the years, sometimes they take the car and sometimes they let me keep it when I’m off work. I never questioned it before.

I was talking with a friend about it, and they told me that because I pay the tax for using it personally, my employer should not be allowed to take it off me