Fuel car & personal milage increase 18 July 2022 at 2:16PM in Employment, jobseeking & training 4 replies 151 views

Liam7290

Hi guys, 

Long time reader first time poster. 

Basically I need some advice, I've recently started a new job with a small company, which includes a company fuel card and a car allowance, but not a company car.

I record the milage and was until recently paying the company for my personal milage at 15p/mile. As my car is particularly efficient it costs me 16p/mile with the new high cost of fuel. I dont mind paying the 1p/mile all well and good, now however the company has increased the cost to me to 25p/mile. So now its costing me 25p per mile to use my own car, despite only costing them 16p. An additional 9p/mile to use my own car seem a bit unreasonable. 

What I want to know is if they're allowed to do this, and where i stand. My understanding is that fuel cards normally come with company cars, and therefore when I'm paying for my personal milage im paying for the depreciation etc.

My boss isn't the easiest to talk to about these issues, and already we've had disagreements so I don't really want to go in with this until I have a better grasp of what's correct. I also appreciate that one way to solve this is to just expense my business milage and pay for my own. But I don't really want to cause any issues until I know where I stand. Any advice or comments would be appreciated. 

TELLIT01

As you say, the simplest solution is to pay for fuel yourself and then bill them via expenses for the business miles.  As they are charging you 25p per mile, presumably you will be able to bill them at the same rate and make a nice little profit.

HampshireH

Definitely sounds simpler to agree to hand back the fuel card and then claim your milage back in line with government rates

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-business-travel-mileage/rules-for-tax

Liam7290

Thanks for replies guys. I think I'll have the conversation with him about getting rid of the fuel card and just expensing my fuel. 

Your responses have been appreciated 

Undervalued

HampshireH said:

Definitely sounds simpler to agree to hand back the fuel card and then claim your milage back in line with government rates

https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-business-travel-mileage/rules-for-tax

The "government rules" only apply to the tax aspects. It doesn't stop the employer paying a lower (or higher) rate. That is purely a contractual matter.