NHS claiming extra car expenses

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This discussion was created from comments split from: Government grants for small businesses.

sucon25_

Hi, I'm not a small business but work part-time for the NHS clinically.
Over the last 2 years during Covid I have done a lot of community work using my own car (having covered 10,000 miles plus). I was wondering if apart from mileage that I already claim, can I claim for using my own car, (wear and tear) during covid? Do you know of any grants or allowances for this please?
Thank you 

MattMattMattUK

sucon25_ said:

Hi, I'm not a small business but work part-time for the NHS clinically.
Over the last 2 years during Covid I have done a lot of community work using my own car (having covered 10,000 miles plus). I was wondering if apart from mileage that I already claim, can I claim for using my own car, (wear and tear) during covid? Do you know of any grants or allowances for this please?
Thank you 

Nope, mileage is designed to cover not just the cost of fuel, but the cost of wear and tear. What is the rate per mile you have claimed? The maximum (before it becomes taxable) is £0.45 for the first 10k miles and £0.25 for any miles beyond that, but some employers pay less. 

Grumpy_chap

sucon25_ said:

I was wondering if apart from mileage that I already claim, can I claim for using my own car, (wear and tear) during covid? 

What is the mileage rate that you have been claiming?

nyermen

As a side point - If employers pay less than the HMRC, I believe you can claim something back via your tax return (not the difference, but maybe the tax on the difference?)

Therefore I dont think wear and tear can ever be expected (well anything could be, but it would treated as standard income ie a taxable benefit)

CKhalvashi

nyermen said:

As a side point - If employers pay less than the HMRC, I believe you can claim something back via your tax return (not the difference, but maybe the tax on the difference?)

Therefore I dont think wear and tear can ever be expected (well anything could be, but it would treated as standard income ie a taxable benefit)

Very few 'standard' used cars will cost the full 45/25p per mile to run in terms of depreciation, maintenance and fuel over the lifetime of a car.

My mother (a band 8 practitioner) uses her car for work and it's a small car she paid £3k for around 6 years ago (it was then around 4 years old). Probably now worth nothing with many additional miles, but the allowances have more than paid for themselves for the job she does. At 50mpg for £1.50/l, it costs 13p/mile on petrol and on average £500 on maintenance per year (around 2p/mile) for 25000 miles, of which around 15000 are claimable. The cost is actually a little less than this as I've underestimated fuel economy and overestimated costs a little.

If someone with a job with many claimable miles choses a new, expensive car, the onus will be on them for the difference, and with a need to protect the NHS rightly so.

The car (a Chevrolet Spark) was purchased in January 2016 with 36174 miles, and passed the MoT on 27/1 with 191412 miles according to official records.

Edit: Checked on government records, it's a 1.0, I believed it was a 1.2.