Business miles

[anxious_ant]

In early stages of potential new job with better pay and more opportunities of working from home.

I won't lie and would say the potential 10k uplift in salary is the main motivator.

However there will be requirement of client site visits which can range from 300 miles weekly to 600 miles weekly. Company would try to arrange so that at least Friday would be a working from home day.
When not on client visits there would be expectation of 120 miles round trip 3 days a week to the office for meetings, with 2 days working from home. As usual caveat that I may need to be in the office as required.

I'm currently doing about 300 miles weekly 5 days a week, about 3 hours every day.

This company doesn't offer company car or car allowance, so just the usual business miles claimed.
Just want to know if this is the norm? Just not too experienced in respect to this and would appreciate some thoughts.

My concern is that I may be blindsided by the salary increase and may end up spending more time on the road and less in the pocket due to increased motoring costs.

[Drumroll]

Depends what the mileage rate is.

I used to run a car on the government recommended rate of £0.45 for the first 10,000 miles and then £0.25

[T1547]

Yes depends what the mileage reimbursement is provided by the new company. £0.45 per mile = £135 for the 300 miles, but can you claim for your miles traveled to the office (I.e are you contractually based from home?).

[anxious_ant]

I believe the role is based in the office but with home working arrangements.
The business miles is per HMRC guidelines.

[anxious_ant]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The maths I did does indicate that motoring costs will be increased. It's rough estimation as hard to calculate exact miles.
10k is gross so net after costs, pensions etc might be closer to 4k.

Pros:

• Big increase in salary
• More progression opportunities compared to current place
• Working from home is perfectly acceptable

Cons:

• Company much smaller size, not much info available to gauge how they are doing financially
• Big leap from end user to MSP, something I've never tried

It's a difficult one to be honest. Still early stages in the process at the moment so some time to think.
Could potentially re-negotiate package at current place with a firm offer elsewhere.
I'm not one who likes to move between jobs often however I'm just in a position where I'm having doubts about career at current place.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

anxious_ant said:

However there will be requirement of client site visits which can range from 300 miles weekly to 600 miles weekly.


This company doesn't offer company car or car allowance,

So they're expecting you to do circa 20K business miles a year and don't offer a company car. fk 'em. Cheapskate company, avoid like the plague.

[Zetec-S]

anxious_ant said:

The maths I did does indicate that motoring costs will be increased. It's rough estimation as hard to calculate exact miles.
10k is gross so net after costs, pensions etc might be closer to 4k.

I wouldn't include pension in the calculation, it's still a benefit to you, just long term rather than immediate.

[Drumroll]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

So they're expecting you to do circa 20K business miles a year and don't offer a company car. fk 'em. Cheapskate company, avoid like the plague.

i actually made more money when I was on just the mileage scheme, plus I could (within reason) run whatever car I wanted. I was doing about 30000 miles a year though.

[anxious_ant]

Zetec-S said:

I wouldn't include pension in the calculation, it's still a benefit to you, just long term rather than immediate.

True. Not too sure why I'm so anxious.
Perhaps fear of current work finding out.
I suppose should just focus on getting through the interview process and further review when firm options are on the table.

[Sheepshanks]

anxious_ant said:

I'm currently doing about 300 miles weekly 5 days a week, about 3 hours every day.

60 miles per day is taking 3hrs?

As for the rest of it, it's not too bad if the business miles replaces your new commute, but if you're going to be going both you'll be sticking a lot of miles on your car, and ~30K/yr starts getting hard on a car. How good it is financially depends on the mileage rate - the max they can pay is 45p for the first 10K business miles, then 25p. Nothing for commute mileage.

Watch out of they offer a lower rate, like "petrol money" and then say you claim the tax back on the difference. This is true, but you do only get the tax back, not the full amount. So if they pay you 15p/mile, you get 20% or 40% (depending on which is your highest tax rate) of the difference between 15p and 45p - ie 6p or 12p. Once over 10K biz miles you're only getting 2p or 4p back,

[anxious_ant]

Sheepshanks said:

60 miles per day is taking 3hrs?

As for the rest of it, it's not too bad if the business miles replaces your new commute, but if you're going to be going both you'll be sticking a lot of miles on your car, and ~30K/yr starts getting hard on a car. How good it is financially depends on the mileage rate - the max they can pay is 45p for the first 10K business miles, then 25p. Nothing for commute mileage.

Watch out of they offer a lower rate, like "petrol money" and then say you claim the tax back on the difference. This is true, but you do only get the tax back, not the full amount. So if they pay you 15p/mile, you get 20% or 40% (depending on which is your highest tax rate) of the difference between 15p and 45p - ie 6p or 12p. Once over 10K biz miles you're only getting 2p or 4p back,

Apologies, didn't notice the typo it's actually 400 miles (80 miles/day).
It's about 1.5 hours each way usual traffic. Accidents could easily add another 30 minutes.
To be fair on a good and quiet day I can do it in 1 hour each way.

I would be on the higher rate. My current car will ran out of warranty in March. The service interval is 1 year or 16,000 miles, whichever sooner or unless it's a milestone major service.
I'm just about comfortable about the mileage I'm putting on my car currently hence the concern if I do more.

I don't think I'd be paid business miles for going into the office. It's 160 miles return.

[geeks]

Sheepshanks said:

60 miles per day is taking 3hrs?

If I go (read when forced) to the office I have a choice of two routes, one is a 70 mile round trip, the other is a 120 mile round trip, the 70 mile route will take 2 hours 15 minutes each way and the other a shade under 2 hours each way. Distance isn't a great indicator of duration.

OP, I made a similar leap just shy of 4 years back and haven't looked back, feel free to drop me a PM if you want, sounds like we could be in similar fields.

[anxious_ant]

Many thanks to Chicken dinner and Geeks for offer of PM.
It's still fairly early in the process so just trying to get my bearings.
If I do have specific questions I'll definitely get in touch

I'm in IT specifically the software side of things.

[geeks]

anxious_ant said:

I'm in IT specifically the software side of things.

Then we are definitely in the same field!

[Muzzer79]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

anxious_ant said:

However there will be requirement of client site visits which can range from 300 miles weekly to 600 miles weekly.

This company doesn't offer company car or car allowance,

So they're expecting you to do circa 20K business miles a year and don't offer a company car. fk 'em. Cheapskate company, avoid like the plague.

I'd be inclined to agree with this, unless the mileage rate offered is good. The hassle of doing big mileage in your own car can be considerable.
If I was doing north of 20k business miles, plus reasonable private mileage, I'd be looking at a Co2 efficient company-supplied car.

Regardless, you still get your 45p per mile from HMRC but it's only once a year and is, for me anyway, paid back by tax code adjustment, so isn't a lump sum.

[anxious_ant]

I used claim business miles for a short period. Basically the company decided to ask me to be based on another site roughly 20 miles each way from my usual office.

I submitted form of my miles every month and was paid back monthly at the 41p rate I believe it was.

It was nice having being "paid" to drive to work and back

Just collected my car from service was advised all pads are worn and front tyres are near legal limit.
That's a full set of pads and at least set of tyres every year.
My discs are still ok but they reckon by next year it due for new ones.
Ouch.

[mooseracer]

Muzzer79 said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

anxious_ant said:

However there will be requirement of client site visits which can range from 300 miles weekly to 600 miles weekly.

This company doesn't offer company car or car allowance,

So they're expecting you to do circa 20K business miles a year and don't offer a company car. fk 'em. Cheapskate company, avoid like the plague.

I'd be inclined to agree with this, unless the mileage rate offered is good. The hassle of doing big mileage in your own car can be considerable.
If I was doing north of 20k business miles, plus reasonable private mileage, I'd be looking at a Co2 efficient company-supplied car.

Regardless, you still get your 45p per mile from HMRC but it's only once a year and is, for me anyway, paid back by tax code adjustment, so isn't a lump sum.

You can only claim the tax back on the difference between what your company pays per mile and HMRC rates (if company rate is less than HMRC rate), as someone posted earlier.

[Muzzer79]

mooseracer said:

Muzzer79 said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

anxious_ant said:

However there will be requirement of client site visits which can range from 300 miles weekly to 600 miles weekly.

This company doesn't offer company car or car allowance,

So they're expecting you to do circa 20K business miles a year and don't offer a company car. fk 'em. Cheapskate company, avoid like the plague.

I'd be inclined to agree with this, unless the mileage rate offered is good. The hassle of doing big mileage in your own car can be considerable.
If I was doing north of 20k business miles, plus reasonable private mileage, I'd be looking at a Co2 efficient company-supplied car.

Regardless, you still get your 45p per mile from HMRC but it's only once a year and is, for me anyway, paid back by tax code adjustment, so isn't a lump sum.

You can only claim the tax back on the difference between what your company pays per mile and HMRC rates (if company rate is less than HMRC rate), as someone posted earlier.

I know.

My point was that regardless of the mileage rate you get from your company per mile, you can claim the difference up to 45p per mile from HMRC.

However, if the mileage rate is rubbish, you only get the difference once a year, potentially through a tax code adjustment.

[ro250]

anxious_ant said:

I used claim business miles for a short period. Basically the company decided to ask me to be based on another site roughly 20 miles each way from my usual office.

I submitted form of my miles every month and was paid back monthly at the 41p rate I believe it was.

It was nice having being "paid" to drive to work and back

Just collected my car from service was advised all pads are worn and front tyres are near legal limit.
That's a full set of pads and at least set of tyres every year.
My discs are still ok but they reckon by next year it due for new ones.
Ouch.

Wouldn't the extra you were being paid cover the extra maintenance though? So you were getting about £16 a day in mileage and probably netting at least a tenner a day after fuel? So £200 a month extra in the maintenance kitty.

[Sheepshanks]

Muzzer79 said:

I know.

My point was that regardless of the mileage rate you get from your company per mile, you can claim the difference up to 45p per mile from HMRC.

I think you probably do understand this, but the way you've written it could still mislead people who don't.

You do only get the tax back, not the full amount. So if the company pays you 15p/mile, you get 20% or 40% (depending on which is your highest tax rate) of the difference between 15p and 45p - ie 6p or 12p. Once over 10K biz miles you're only getting 2p or 4p back. Plus the 15p, of course.

Muzzer79 said:

However, if the mileage rate is rubbish, you only get the difference once a year, potentially through a tax code adjustment.

If it’s done through a coding change then you’d get it every month (by paying a bit less tax). Although I don’t know when that would kick in unless you specifically ask them to do it like that.