Carer using my Mum's car

Brick18

My Mum has Parkinson's and can no longer drive.She has a rota of carers everyday between 9am and 10pm. One of the carers, who does about 35 hours a week on the rota, has been using my Mum's car as her own for over a year. This means she takes it home, uses it for all her personal business, including travelling to and from work, as well as taking my Mum out when she is working, if required. This arrangement was made without our knowledge initially and we weren't entirely happy about it, but at the time Mum was more compos mentis and determined to do it. My Mum is still the regsietered owner, although the carer is the registered keeper.

With my Dad's passing I am taking over running of my Mum's care rota and her finances. My question is from the point of view of HMRC and tax, does this effectively count as a company car? Do we need to inform, or get the carer to inform, HMRC of this 'arrangement'.

I am assuming we do, but not being an expert in the area thought it best to check.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Alter_ego

Business insurance in force?

BriNylon

Brick18 said:

My Mum has Parkinson's and can no longer drive.She has a rota of carers everyday between 9am and 10pm. One of the carers, who does about 35 hours a week on the rota, has been using my Mum's car as her own for over a year. This means she takes it home, uses it for all her personal business, including travelling to and from work, as well as taking my Mum out when she is working, if required. This arrangement was made without our knowledge initially and we weren't entirely happy about it, but at the time Mum was more compos mentis and determined to do it. My Mum is still the regsietered owner, although the carer is the registered keeper.

With my Dad's passing I am taking over running of my Mum's care rota and her finances. My question is from the point of view of HMRC and tax, does this effectively count as a company car? Do we need to inform, or get the carer to inform, HMRC of this 'arrangement'.

I am assuming we do, but not being an expert in the area thought it best to check.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Yes.  The car is classed as a benefit in kind and tax and NIC are due.

Brick18

Thanks for the responses, mostly confirming what I suspected.

I believe the carers have business insurance for their cars, most work for other clients as well and my understanding was this had been checked, but it might be worth me rechecking.

Thanks again for your help.

Archergirl

Tell her you need to sell the car and see if she want's to buy it?
Seems a bit of a scam to me.....What happens if she has an accident if it was written off your mum would lose out...

TELLIT01

Brick18 said:

Thanks for the responses, mostly confirming what I suspected.

I believe the carers have business insurance for their cars, most work for other clients as well and my understanding was this had been checked, but it might be worth me rechecking.

Thanks again for your help.

The carers may have business insurance for their own cars but almost certainly won't have insurance to drive other people's cars.  It's entirely possible that she has been driving uninsured for the past year or more.  If she is a named driver on your mother's insurance I would still stop her using it for anything other than requirements in looking after your mother.  That does not include her private mileage.  The carer is taking advantage (to put it politely) of your mother's situation.

sheramber

Whose name is on the V5C?
Whose name is the car insured on?
Who pays the premium and for the service, MOT etc?