Company Car Allowance; Tax, etc worth it?

Philgb4

NottinghamKnight said:

OP you will currently owe a large amount of tax if the car is for your private use, whatever the company call it.
the advice above about private fuel is out of date, if you are a higher rate taxpayer then depending on the vehicle you could be looking at paying £200 a month for the 'free' fuel so it;s often cheaper to pay for your own.

I should have stated that the Mondeo was not to be used for private use.
I'm not sure how that works out in regards to the fuel. Unfortunately tax and such things are not my forte. 
Though I'm not quite sure how I could end up paying an extra £200 for fuel through tax?

The only other option I suppose is I suggest the company use that money to lease/purchase a vehicle of my choosing. 
At least they can claim VAT etc back through the business and will get far more for the money.

Grumpy_chap

Philgb4 said:.

The only other option I suppose is I suggest the company use that money to lease/purchase a vehicle of my choosing. 
At least they can claim VAT etc back through the business and will get far more for the money.

Highly unlikely that will happen.  You said all the cars are Hyundai i30 Tourer.  Why would the company want a one-off something else on their fleet, no discounts, and stuck with it if you leave for any reason?

Grumpy_chap

Philgb4 said:

Though I'm not quite sure how I could end up paying an extra £200 for fuel through tax?

Fuel benefit is based on car BIK for fuel card (including private use) for a company car.  Gets expensive unless you do a high private mileage.
This is not the case for fuel card with own car.  Taxed on actual value of fuel spent.
A company car can only avoid BIK tax (and fuel card tax) if the car is not available for private use and the company ensures this is the case in reality.

Petriix

I strongly recommend getting an EV. The BIK is 0%, rising to 2% over the next couple of years. Stupidly cheap to run as well. Lease for an E-Niro is very well priced right now. Unless you regularly drive over 250 miles per day then range is good.

Philgb4

Thanks Grumpy_chap.
A lot to think about here. Albeit, I here entirely what you are saying. I have no intentions of coming across as a 'trouble maker' but where I spend sufficient time on the road want to ensure I have something reasonably comfortable to accommodate me. 

Though, I may have to accept that the comfort on the road may not be some comfortable on my wallet.

Philgb4

Petriix said:

I strongly recommend getting an EV. The BIK is 0%, rising to 2% over the next couple of years. Stupidly cheap to run as well. Lease for an E-Niro is very well priced right now. Unless you regularly drive over 250 miles per day then range is good.

We currently have a Mitsubishi PHEV as our family car, but I see no benefit to that as a privately owned car for work where I am getting fuel costs paid on my behalf anyway.

Grumpy_chap

It seems clear that the OP is not pleased with the idea of an i30 tourer.
On that basis, take the car allowance and negotiate the best allowance possible.  Depending on the rules for a car, it should be possible to get something nice in the budget, but not brand new.  Maybe, what the rules are is as much part of the negotiation as how much the allowance is.

Philgb4

Grumpy_chap said:

It seems clear that the OP is not pleased with the idea of an i30 tourer.
On that basis, take the car allowance and negotiate the best allowance possible.  Depending on the rules for a car, it should be possible to get something nice in the budget, but not brand new.  Maybe, what the rules are is as much part of the negotiation as how much the allowance is.

Thanks very much for your advice.
Agreed, based on the allowance, I feel I should try to negotiate a slight increase imon the allowance, without getting greedy. 
Dependant on the stipulations, I will probably look at purchasing a reasonable used car, that at least I can try and have some equity in it when I come to sell etc.

AdrianC

Philgb4 said:

Agreed, based on the allowance, I feel I should try to negotiate a slight increase imon the allowance, without getting greedy. 

You're being offered a choice...

Take the company car, or take £x/mo and use it to provide your own car.

By saying "No, I don't want either, I want more money...", you're saying you want a pay rise. Of course you're free to do that at any time - and, of course, your employer are free to disagree. Given that you've only been employed there for nine months, I suspect their reply will be that you should have queried the car policy during your recruitment, and that they are the two options on the table, so please choose between them.

How much do you want to negotiate, and how much will that be in your pocket post-tax? You are being offered £3,500/yr before tax. Do you want another 20%? That's £700/year, almost certainly less than £40/mo after tax. How prepared are you to hack your new employer off for so little?

The Mondeo was clearly a stopgap as there were no in-house cars available at the time. There are now, so you are being allocated one.

chrisw

It would appear you are seeing the car as a status symbol rather than as a tool for doing your job.

Does your work include visiting construction sites? If so, I would prefer to use a company vehicle where there's no/less concern over it getting dirty, tyres, maintenance, scuffs and scratches. Even a base spec i30 is fairly well equipped these days. You might feel better once it's replaced with a new one rather than someone else's cast off.