Company car in own Ltd company - winter tyre purchase

[BBYeah]

I just bought an EV company car for my Ltd company, I’m the sole employee.

It will have personal use and so I am paying bik when it is due.

I am assuming the company will pay for insuring, servicing and maintenance. Is that allowed?

My main question though is I want to switch to all seasons for safety... can this be put through on the company too, under maintenance? The summer tyres will just be stored till they are needed again.

Lastly, I can’t claim VAT back on the car but what about servicing, tyres etc?

TIA!

[Superleg48]

What does your Accountant advise?

[BBYeah]

They close at 5pm... I thought there may be some kind people here who could offer their experiences in the meantime.

[Super Slo Mo]

Yes to all your questions basically.
The normal advice is that you pay for your own fuel and claim it back at the standard rates depending on fuel type and engine size, but as yours is electric I guess that doesn’t apply.

[StevieBee]

Genuine question..... is it really necessary to switch tyres for winter? I know in Sweden you have to by law but our winters tend to be positively tropical compared to their's.

[Wombat3]

StevieBee said:

Genuine question..... is it really necessary to switch tyres for winter? I know in Sweden you have to by law but our winters tend to be positively tropical compared to their's.

There are entire threads devoted to this!

Depends what you drive, where you live and where you are going. Winter tyres provide better grip than normal tyres below about 7 degrees. Bad idea to run them all year round though - destroys them.

If you plan on driving anywhere Icy or on Snow then they are an extremely good idea. If all you do is stick to towns & major routes then maybe not.

Aside from buying some wheels to put them on (which can probably be sold after you are done with them) they are pretty much a zero sum game though - while you have those on the car you are not wearing the others out. You just need somewhere to store them. You should always put them on their own rims - it doesn't do any tyres much good to be taken on & off repeatedly.

Another option these days are Cross climate tyres which are supposed to do both jobs - but probably do neither as well as a dedicated summer/winter tyre.

[Blown2CV]

car related benefits incur BIK, which you should already be paying as part of the salary from your Ltd co employer. I am sure your company could be the business vehicle insurance policyholder and have you as employee named driver. Business leases can be specified with maintenance and tyres etc included, so you should have gone for that really. As it stands you sound like you haven't, so you will likely need to buy those items from your car and expense them, as long as your expense policy allows... however you really need to take advice from your accountant as there may be tax rules etc where you cannot just expense stuff like that. They money changing hands is really the issue here, consider maintained contracts in future.

[Superleg48]

Blown2CV said:

car related benefits incur BIK, which you should already be paying as part of the salary from your Ltd co employer. I am sure your company could be the business vehicle insurance policyholder and have you as employee named driver. Business leases can be specified with maintenance and tyres etc included, so you should have gone for that really. As it stands you sound like you haven't, so you will likely need to buy those items from your car and expense them, as long as your expense policy allows... however you really need to take advice from your accountant as there may be tax rules etc where you cannot just expense stuff like that. They money changing hands is really the issue here, consider maintained contracts in future.

Will a fully maintained lease agreement authorise fresh tyres for seasonal use, when the current tyres are not worn?

[Autopilot]

I'm not an accountant so don't know the hard and fast rules, but am in a similar position to you in that I'm a ltd company and have personal use of a company vehicle (commercial) and pay BIK.

Everything is paid for by the company and everything is registered to the company, v5, insurance policies etc etc. While I'm not an accountant, I am a company director so run my company how I want (within reason), so if I wanted to put winter tyres on at the companies expense, I would. It's always worth running things by your accountant and while I don't know if this is ok or not, this is one of the things I'd just go ahead and do and not be too worried.