Parking Fees At Work

Paul.Martin_3

Hello there,

This is my first post on the site so please be nice if I've posted this in the wrong section.

As from 1st January 2008, I will be charged to park my car on site at my place of work. The fees will be £75 per quarter, amounting to £300 per annum.

I am a subcontractor who is PAYE employed by a large facilities management company who are based permanently on the site of the client, a large American bank in the Bournemouth area.

What I would like to enquire about is are there any ways of saving money on this? At present, I am being asked to submit 4 cheques throughout the year each with a payment of £75 on them. Am I able to have the deductions made at source prior to being taxed on my income? Or are there any other money saving ways that I can go about getting assistance in this as £300 is a considerable amount to pay and even more so when I work shifts and only benefit from using the facilities for a relatively short period each month.

Your help would be appreciated.

Paul

MarkyMarkD

You can't claim tax relief on the cost of parking at your place of permanent employment.

But if it was an agreed reduction in your gross pay, I don't see why it shouldn't lead to a reduction in tax - salary sacrifice is perfectly legitimate.

Paul.Martin_3

Thanks for the speedy response back. It's one of those right Royal pains in the butt!!

You receive a salary increase at the rate of RPI and then it gets robbed off you in the next breath but as an additional charge.

I wasn't sure if there was any mileage in claiming that this wasn't part of my contract of employment and therefore any charges since issued by the client should be absorbed in the running costs by the subcontractor (my employer) as a consequetial loss.

I have to say that it wasn't also stipulated as a benfit of the job either ie free parking.

Mikeyorks

As above - you can't claim the fees for parking at your permanent place of work.

But (and strongly suspect you'll say this was evaluated during the run up to charging being announced!) if you're deemed an essential worker / contractor - can't you negotiate an opt out?

If not, then :-

I wasn't sure if there was any mileage in claiming that this wasn't part of my contract of employment and therefore any charges since issued by the client should be absorbed in the running costs by the subcontractor (my employer) as a consequetial loss

..... there's some logic in that (despite the normal employees of the Bank could claim the same!) and you could approach your employer for at least partial compensation of the unpredicted expense. Perversely any such allowance would not be taxable :-

EIM01030 - Employment income: car parking facilities at or near the employee’s workplace
Section 237 ITEPA 2003
Any payment or reimbursement of expenses in connection with the provision for, or use by, an employee of a car parking space at or near the employee’s workplace is not chargeable to tax.

For the meaning of "at or near the employee’s workplace" see EIM21685.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM01030.htm