Time to give company car back?
Discussion
I know this has been discussed many a time before, however I'm rubbish at attempting to calculate the cut off point when giving your company car back makes sense.
Ive got a golf bluemotion at the moment, and my employer has updated the company car policy and has said that company car drivers can hand their cars back, and if they do, they'll give us a £5k payrise in exchange. I would still need a car for work, and would get business mileage paid in expenses.
I've calculated that with the extra £5k a year in salary, and without paying company car tax or fuel card tax, I'd be about £4700 per year better off (with all deductions taken off).
I live in London, but use my car to get about (to Somerset to see the familly, to Cambridge to see the Mrs) but only every now and again, often I will do little personal miles.
Would you give the car back and run one privately given the above?
Ive got a golf bluemotion at the moment, and my employer has updated the company car policy and has said that company car drivers can hand their cars back, and if they do, they'll give us a £5k payrise in exchange. I would still need a car for work, and would get business mileage paid in expenses.
I've calculated that with the extra £5k a year in salary, and without paying company car tax or fuel card tax, I'd be about £4700 per year better off (with all deductions taken off).
I live in London, but use my car to get about (to Somerset to see the familly, to Cambridge to see the Mrs) but only every now and again, often I will do little personal miles.
Would you give the car back and run one privately given the above?
sounds like the Gordon Brown school of accounting to me.
is that including road tax and insurance.
how old are you ?
with your own car you have to cover finance and servicing/ breakdowns.....
what are they paying per mile............what happens if you have a prang ?
i would always go for a company car because of the lack of worry - break it
and its their problem - even if your flashed by a camera it can push it
passed the sent by date
is that including road tax and insurance.
how old are you ?
with your own car you have to cover finance and servicing/ breakdowns.....
what are they paying per mile............what happens if you have a prang ?
i would always go for a company car because of the lack of worry - break it
and its their problem - even if your flashed by a camera it can push it
passed the sent by date
Edited by gr88 on Thursday 8th December 20:59
Can't answer your question without loads more info but just remember one thing:
A company car may be more expensive, but it's a fixed cost. Your own car may appear to save you money, but costs vary. You could have an accident, insurance excess, increased insurance costs. You could run over a broken bottle and do 2 tyres. Plus a whole load of other misfortunes that might be just around the corner.
A company car may be more expensive, but it's a fixed cost. Your own car may appear to save you money, but costs vary. You could have an accident, insurance excess, increased insurance costs. You could run over a broken bottle and do 2 tyres. Plus a whole load of other misfortunes that might be just around the corner.
gr88 said:
sounds like the Gordon Brown school of accounting to me.
is that including road tax and insurance.
how old are you ?
with your own car you have to cover finance and servicing/ breakdowns.....
what are they paying per mile............what happens if you have a prang ?
i would always go for a company car because of the lack of worry - break it
and its their problem - even if your flashed by a camera it can push it
passed the sent by date
The figure of £4700 would be to cover all costs associated with running a car, but that is £4700 every year for this.is that including road tax and insurance.
how old are you ?
with your own car you have to cover finance and servicing/ breakdowns.....
what are they paying per mile............what happens if you have a prang ?
i would always go for a company car because of the lack of worry - break it
and its their problem - even if your flashed by a camera it can push it
passed the sent by date
Edited by gr88 on Thursday 8th December 20:59
I came to £4700 by taking tax etc. off of the £5k then added the reduction in the amount of tax I'd pay due to a better tax code (would revert to 747L from 76T). So take home, each year, would be + £4700.
I'm 25.
Not sure how much they'll pay per mile, but I don't do that many business miles.
Agreed about the benifit of risk free motoring, and fully aware of potential costs, but I wouldn't mind get a fun car again (work wouldn't mind what car I had), and can't justify 2 cars (only on street parking).
I guess on balance I wouldn't save much, and the increased risk of losing money due to a prang or breakdown sways the argument!
ScottishnInja - if you've got a company car your tax code shouldn't be 747L. If it is, make sure you get your payroll people to send a P46(car) to the tax office ASAP otherwise you'll be underpaying tax for the rest of this year and will only have to pay it when your P11D is filed next July
Scottish_ninja said:
Strange coincidence..... i am 25, tax code 747L and have a golf GT TDi Blue motion company vehicle.
Is yours candy white by any chance?lol
I appreciate that this is of absolutely no help, but it humoured me.
Stephen.
Unfortunately not, gun metal grey lolIs yours candy white by any chance?lol
I appreciate that this is of absolutely no help, but it humoured me.
Stephen.
And as the above poster has said, call the tax office, your tax code should be less than that (mines 76T, including fuel card for personal use)!
Leasing for £250 wouldn't work though, as I would need to pay for fuel / Insurance / Road tax / consumables for the year, which in total would likely be at least £1700?
pbarlow0032 said:
ScottishnInja - if you've got a company car your tax code shouldn't be 747L. If it is, make sure you get your payroll people to send a P46(car) to the tax office ASAP otherwise you'll be underpaying tax for the rest of this year and will only have to pay it when your P11D is filed next July
Panic over its 634L.Hopefully thats the correct code and i wont get stung at the end of the year.
Stephen.
No worries, just had by boring accountant head on for a bit :-) I've just handed my company car and fuel card back as the scheme was so restrictive and cost me a lot in "take home" pay - I couldn't take a lower level car and some cash, it was either get a nice new expensive car for the max allowance or come out of the scheme. Spent ages trying to decide on a 5 series or evoque, but whichever way I looked at it it was "spending" >£30k on a 5 door diesel.
There's a lot to be said for no hassle motoring though.
OP, bear in mind when you're doing your sums that once you've taken the allowance, even if your employer doesn't pay you 45p per business mile, you can claim the tax relief on the difference by filling out a specific form (the name of which escapes me at present)
There's a lot to be said for no hassle motoring though.
OP, bear in mind when you're doing your sums that once you've taken the allowance, even if your employer doesn't pay you 45p per business mile, you can claim the tax relief on the difference by filling out a specific form (the name of which escapes me at present)
Scottish_ninja said:
Panic over its 634L.
Hopefully thats the correct code and i wont get stung at the end of the year.
Stephen.
Wow, if that's correct your paying next to nothing for yours! Do you get a fuel card?!Hopefully thats the correct code and i wont get stung at the end of the year.
Stephen.
(your only paying tax on an extra £1130 salary (£226 / £452 less take home per YEAR!)
pbarlow0032 said:
I've just handed my company car and fuel card back as the scheme was so restrictive and cost me a lot in "take home" pay - I couldn't take a lower level car and some cash, it was either get a nice new expensive car for the max allowance or come out of the scheme. Spent ages trying to decide on a 5 series or evoque, but whichever way I looked at it it was "spending" >£30k on a 5 door diesel.
This is the key, luckily the golf is cheap, only about £150 per month in tax. It would be a no-brainer to keep the car if they didn't then offer me £5k extra each year to not have a car!pbarlow0032 said:
OP, bear in mind when you're doing your sums that once you've taken the allowance, even if your employer doesn't pay you 45p per business mile, you can claim the tax relief on the difference by filling out a specific form (the name of which escapes me at present)
Didn't realise this, will bear in mind, thanks 
Scottishninja, when did you get the car? Tax code works as follows: 747L means your personal allowance is £7,470 per year (or there abouts). If your taxable benefits are say £5k p.a. your tax code would reduce to say 247L i.e. your personal allowance is now only £2,470 so you end up paying more tax, being the tax equivalent on the benefit.
You probably already know that your benefit in kind on a car is, simplistically, the list price x a percentage bases on CO2, which for the golf blue motion is probably 13%. Assuming list price of £20k you would have a taxable benefit of £2,600, so your tax code should reduce to say 490L or something like that. But that's assuming you've had the car from 6 April?
You probably already know that your benefit in kind on a car is, simplistically, the list price x a percentage bases on CO2, which for the golf blue motion is probably 13%. Assuming list price of £20k you would have a taxable benefit of £2,600, so your tax code should reduce to say 490L or something like that. But that's assuming you've had the car from 6 April?
Just a thought I was faced with a huge monthly tax bill for a simple Citroen C4 diesel, it was something like 160 per month for private use and free fuel. I never really used it out of hours except perhaps to go to the local paper shop and back. I just notified the company that I didnt want any personal use and HR sent the taxman a form. It might be worth keeping the car and then you can rent something new and comfy for about fifty quid for the weekend should you need to go visiting
Before my comments below, Note that the fuel recovery rate (ppm) is exactly the same as if you are driving a company car. This is driven by HMRC and NOT your company
My story
It was time to change. Looked at the company car list and it was full of increasingly boring and increasingly diesel euro-boxes.
Dropped out and took the cash ~£420 net
Bought my 4-year old company car off the leasing company - less than £5k for a V6 Mondeo, with 70k on it
Financed the the car over 12 months.
Yes, you need to find money for VED, Tyres, servicing (do it yourself?) and most importantly insurance (in my case £500pa) and all that other stuff, but after the finance, I had a free car after 12 months
Since then I've piled another 80k on the Mondy and yes, I have to bale cash into it to keep it going, but this is still a lot less than £1k pa (servicing, plus tyres, plus failures)
12 months later I used the monthly income to finance the purchase of my dream car (Corvette)
4 years later, I can now drop back in to the car scheme whenever I want, but the way I see things, it will cost me ~£400 in net income to have a boring, poxy, diesel snot-box, that is "free"
I'll just run the Mondy until it's dead and make a decision then. In the meantime, I've got a Vette, courtesy of my employer....
ATEOTD, TOTAL running costs for a car that's paid for is a lot lees that depreciation or P11D.....
Just my 2 cents..
My story
It was time to change. Looked at the company car list and it was full of increasingly boring and increasingly diesel euro-boxes.
Dropped out and took the cash ~£420 net
Bought my 4-year old company car off the leasing company - less than £5k for a V6 Mondeo, with 70k on it
Financed the the car over 12 months.
Yes, you need to find money for VED, Tyres, servicing (do it yourself?) and most importantly insurance (in my case £500pa) and all that other stuff, but after the finance, I had a free car after 12 months
Since then I've piled another 80k on the Mondy and yes, I have to bale cash into it to keep it going, but this is still a lot less than £1k pa (servicing, plus tyres, plus failures)
12 months later I used the monthly income to finance the purchase of my dream car (Corvette)
4 years later, I can now drop back in to the car scheme whenever I want, but the way I see things, it will cost me ~£400 in net income to have a boring, poxy, diesel snot-box, that is "free"
I'll just run the Mondy until it's dead and make a decision then. In the meantime, I've got a Vette, courtesy of my employer....
ATEOTD, TOTAL running costs for a car that's paid for is a lot lees that depreciation or P11D.....
Just my 2 cents..
Edited by Bowler on Thursday 8th December 23:13
Edited by Bowler on Thursday 8th December 23:20
Jakestar said:
I live in London,
Get some insurance quotes before you opt out, and make sure there isn't a big excess. Bear in mind if you crash your company car, or it get vandalised etc, it makes no odds. If it's your car you'll lose a chunk of your NCB and your premium will rocket.gr88 said:
- even if your flashed by a camera it can push it passed the sent by date
The 14 day time limit doesn't apply to leased or company owned cars.Scottish_ninja said:
Panic over its 634L.
I've lost track of the exact figures these days, but surely that can't be low enough?Deva Link said:
I've lost track of the exact figures these days, but surely that can't be low enough?
Nowhere near. A quick (rough) check based on a rough list price of £22k says the code should be more like 351L if you pay for all of your private fuel, and 13L if you don't!Edited by LeighW on Friday 9th December 00:14
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff