BCH with salary reduction vs salary sacrifice scheme?

[csampo]

Hi folks,

I'm hoping someone here can clarify the following for me here. I need to understand if there is a significant difference for an employee between leasing an EV via a salary sacrifice scheme (Zenith/Octopus etc) compared to the employer taking out a standard BCH hire, providing the vehicle as a company car to the employee and simply reducing the employees gross salary by the lease cost. Are these two things not effectively the same from a legal and tax perspective, or am I missing something? I do understand that salary sacrifice schemes potentially offer the employer certain benefits such as early termination protection and (I guess) administrative savings.

Also, if anyone has experience of the two, do the salary sacrifice schemes typically provide similar value to BCH leases or are their gross costs higher?

Thanks for any advice!

[jaydeeuk1]

There's a slight difference in that sal sac schemes will include servicing, maintenance, insurance, and termination. However because of this it is generally more expensive than simply taking out a BCH car with maintenance pack (think I compared octopus scheme which was generally around 20% more expensive compared to best deals from leasing.com and leaseloco.com ), also these schemes often quote as if employers NI is put towards the payment when it might not be, so if you see a cheaper than expected price just check.