Taking my company car off me.

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  • MataNui
    MataNui Posts: 1,075 Forumite
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    Since you are a courier this does seem more like personal use of a pool car than a company car in the normal sense. Unfortunately that also means a BIK tax. Depenmding on what you currently pay and if you have another car at home You may be better off telling the employer you dont want use of the car and just leave it in work.
  • Comms69
    Comms69 Posts: 14,229 Forumite
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    miss_zoeee wrote: »
    I’m not new to the role, no. I’ve been with the company 7 years.
    Over the years, sometimes they take the car and sometimes they let me keep it when I’m off work. I never questioned it before.

    I was talking with a friend about it, and they told me that because I pay the tax for using it personally, my employer should not be allowed to take it off me

    Without being rude to you or your friend. Is he/she an employment solicitor, union rep, etc?


    Often people will give opinions on something with no actual reasoning behind it.


    You pay tax on it because it's taxable. You don't do it voluntarily :)
  • miss_zoeee
    miss_zoeee Posts: 8 Forumite
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    Comms69 wrote: »
    Without being rude to you or your friend. Is he/she an employment solicitor, union rep, etc?


    Often people will give opinions on something with no actual reasoning behind it.


    You pay tax on it because it's taxable. You don't do it voluntarily :)

    They are not, no.

    I’ve never had a problem before but I just wanted to double check.

    Thank you very much 😀
  • MataNui
    MataNui Posts: 1,075 Forumite
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    miss_zoeee wrote: »
    I was talking with a friend about it, and they told me that because I pay the tax for using it personally, my employer should not be allowed to take it off me


    Which was my initial thought but i was thinking in terms of a traditional 'company car' provided as a perk (as your friend probably is). Yours isnt that. Its a company vehicle (a pool car basically) that you are allowed personal use of and probably only because your employers would rather not have to be responsible for keeping it out of hours (perhaps they dont have a secure yard etc). Your case is more like the contractors who might take the works van home. Unfortunately this does attract a BIK but you dont get the same sort of perks as a more traditional 'company car' user.


    Personally if i had another vehicle at home i would tell them its their car and they need to find somewhere to keep it themselves as i wouldnt want to be paying the tax just to do them a favor.
  • getmore4less
    getmore4less Posts: 46,882 Forumite
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    Check the car contract for damage and responsibility
    Then what if they bring it back dirty will the company pay for a valet.

    Make sure you leave it empty and any mileage is not apportioned to you.

    Remind the company if they give this other employee a car to commute that will be taxible and they need to deal with that.

    Also a bit of a pain having to clear it out of personal stuff
  • miss_zoeee
    miss_zoeee Posts: 8 Forumite
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    ReadingTim wrote: »
    It's a benefit provided to you, so can be altered or withdrawn as the company sees fit (subject to certain processes). Paying tax on this benefit does not make it yours and yours alone; so yes, the company can make the car available to someone else while you're away, but by the same token, you shouldn't expected to pay tax and fuel when you're away.

    I pay £16 a month, every month regardless of whether I have the car or not. This never changes. I also put my own fuel in when I use it at weekends.

    I fill out a mileage form each month too, with business and personal mileage. So when I don’t have the car, I state this on the mileage form.
    I assume HMRC would adjust my tax amount according?
  • ohreally
    ohreally Posts: 7,525 Forumite
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    Me2you wrote: »
    Have you negotiated and said the person can use it on the days you are away?

    The general rule is you negotiate from a position of strength, that doesn't appear to be the case here.

    Run it by us how that conversation would go.
    Don’t be a can’t, be a can.
  • MataNui
    MataNui Posts: 1,075 Forumite
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    miss_zoeee wrote: »
    I pay £16 a month, every month regardless of whether I have the car or not. This never changes. I also put my own fuel in when I use it at weekends.

    I fill out a mileage form each month too, with business and personal mileage. So when I don’t have the car, I state this on the mileage form.
    I assume HMRC would adjust my tax amount according?


    Nope. They wont.
    You take the car home so its classed as a 'company car' (a perk) so HMRC see it as a benefit in kind. In your case its more that you are probably doing your employer a favor than it being a perk but HMRC dont give a crap about that and they wont adjust your tax because another employee also takes that same car home.



    Unfortunately these sorts of arrangements rarely actually benefit the employee in the long run. Its basically a pool car that you 'look after' for your employer and in return they let you use it if they dont need it. Thats not really what most people mean by the term 'company car' but you still get shafted on the tax as though it is.
  • jobbingmusician
    jobbingmusician Posts: 20,343 Forumite
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    I'm not so sure. By which I mean exactly what I say - I don't know the answer to this.


    But the people who DO are called the HMRC and are at the end of a phone. Why not call them and ask?

    Also....

    You have told us you're going on holiday, but not for how long. I would expect HMRC's answer to be that you shouldn't be paying tax on the BIK if you are going for 6 months, for example.... I assume that if their answer is 'yes, your employer can do this and you have to keep paying the tax' there must be a holiday length where this statement is no longer true. It would be interesting to know what this is!
    I was a board guide here for many years, but have now resigned. Amicably, but I think it reflects very poorly on MSE that I have not even received an acknowledgement of my resignation! Poor show, MSE.

    This signature was changed on 6.4.22. This is an experiment to see if anyone from MSE picks up on this comment.
  • sangie595
    sangie595 Posts: 6,092 Forumite
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    Paying tax on a benefit in kind does not transfer ownership of the car. Toy are paying tax on the value of a benefit , not on a car. It is not your car. And, frankly, £16 a month tax on it is miniscule, probably because it is not "yours". If it were "yours", unless it's a two seater, pedal powered scooter, you'd be paying an awful lot more I suspect.

    So you could possibly argue sole use, although precedent suggests this isn't true, but I suspect that you'll find your tax bill goes up a lot. Or you could continue as past practice - the car is theirs and you are lucky enough to get quite a lot of personal use out of it, for which you pay very little.
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