Petrol Card v Millage Allowance 15 April 2020 at 4:32PM in How much have you saved? 5 replies 42 views

wglas

Good evening,

I receive a monetary allowance to buy my own car. 

I also have the choice of having a fuel card or a mileage allowance. 

Can you help me decide / understand what is the best option for me to take? 

I will do around 20k business miles a year.

Thanks

savingwannabe

Hello can anyone help? I don't drive so I wouldn't know. 

milton1970

My experience would suggest that the rate paid in mileage allowance is usually below the actual cost (although oil price is down resulting in lower petrol costs) add to this that there is usually a tiered rate that results in lower rate above certain mileage 14K from memory.
If your company pay above the HMRC approved rate it becomes taxable (in part)

given you are doing 20K pa - go with the fuel card 👍

k3lvc

milton1970 said:

given you are doing 20K pa - go with the fuel card 👍

Depends on the car and it's economy, the mileage allowance, the car purchase allowance and other running costs together with the tax on the fuel card and what the OP's tax rate is. Despite doing a 70/30% split business vs private I've never managed to be in a situation where a fuel card would've been worthwhile in the last 20yrs

milton1970

Disagree - You should not pay tax on fuel card if only used for business purposes 
Allowable rates are VERY low 
Pay for your private fuel

k3lvc

milton1970 said:

Disagree - You should not pay tax on fuel card if only used for business purposes 
Allowable rates are VERY low 
Pay for your private fuel

Did you read the OP - they have an allowance for their own vehicle. Do you want to explain how this works for the OP's situation ? Very different from a company vehicle situation where you can leave it at work and have zero private usage