Promotional Vehicles

[pontypool]

Are there different tax rules if I drive a car owned (well, financed by) my company but it is a promo/advertising vehicle?

I am thinking about a cheap 4x4 or similar and totally wrapped in vinyl grpahics to advertise one of our products, but am not sure whether that would attract a big company car tax bill.

Would i be better off just getting one of my own personal cars wrapped (although they are hardly what I want to promote my company!!) and then charging back to the company for its use?

[jon h]

We produce a lot of vehicle wraps where I work. I do not beleive there is a different tax position on them, but I am sure there are people in a better position than me to confirm or deny that. What you could perhaps do is carry the advertising on a vehicle owned by you, but claim an allowance from the company for doing so, essentially billing the company for providing the advertising space. This could probably cover the cost of running the vehicle. For example, take a look at this web site (one of our clients) www.adlimo.co.uk/ You will note that for a full wrap on a stretched Hummer Limo (OK, I am guessing you are talking about a smaller 4x4!) they charge £27,000 PER MONTH. Now this is an extreme example based upon the visual impact of such a vehicle, but I would have thought that a scheme paying employees between say £300 and £500 per month to carry a full advertising wrap on a vehicle would be a cunning way of financing a car...

Oh, think about insurance... ought to be declared as a modification. In an accident, there is extra cost to repair the wrap. I have been told of one case of an insurer trying to dodge a claim on the basis of graphics fitted to a vehicle that they did not know about.

Jon H

[pontypool]

crikey, can you imagine the turnover they do a month to justify that - must be a lot of classy hen parties!

So it looks like it could be an interesting way to "help" finance a car. I wonder how little graphics one could get a way with; also are any wraps re-usable...i.e. if I wanted to trundle about not looking like an advertising hoarding at weekends, but slap it back on for the working week?

[jon h]

pontypool said:

crikey, can you imagine the turnover they do a month to justify that - must be a lot of classy hen parties!

So it looks like it could be an interesting way to "help" finance a car. I wonder how little graphics one could get a way with; also are any wraps re-usable...i.e. if I wanted to trundle about not looking like an advertising hoarding at weekends, but slap it back on for the working week?

Wraps are a one shot thing. It takes 2 men a day to wrap a car properly. We strip a lot of bits off the car, such as mirrors, door handles, washer jets, and assorted trim as necessary, before wrapping and re-fitting all the bits. Once removed, the film is not re-usable.

Remember that it protects your paint when on too. For example we wrap vehicles on behalf of lease companies. Say an end user wants a fleet of bright orange vans, there is a cost to have them sprayed and then the residual of the vehicle at the end of lease is lower due to the colour. So, the lease company gets a white van, we wrap it orange, and at the end of the lease strip the film and the paint is factory fresh underneath.


Jon