Detailing Private Mileage

[scirocco265]

My employer provides me with a Company Car and Fuel Card for both business and private mileage. I don't make a contribution towards either of these other than the obligatory personal taxation. My employer has now asked me (and all other fuel card users) to start detailing every single journey I make - start place, end place, date, mileage, private/business. I don't mind giving a weekly summary of personal and detailing individual business journeys however am concerned about detailing each personal journey. I believe 'trip to tesco', 'trip to gym' etcetera will take up a lot of admin time for me and is somewhat none of my employers business where I go (!)

Can someone please provide me with some guidance on what my rights are and why my employer would be asking for such detail (tax purposes??)

Thank you in advance.

[The Beaver King]

I can't imagine why your employer would be after that amount of detail for your personal use of the car...

If you haven't already, I suggest a quick chat and clarification that he does indeed want all that info.

Usually most businesses are happy with a monthly total of miles for that month plus a list of any business miles. I wouldn't be happy providing my personal trips to my employer.

The only reason I can think he'd want all that info is that somebody may be on the 'fiddle' and abusing their fuel usage. With a log of people's mileage across the board, it could identify or provide evidence against the person.

Other than that, I don't know. Definitely odd though.

Is it a big company?

[Tannedbaldhead]

HMRC are to blame. They want tax on benefit for free personal miles.

We are now tracked, like the OP we have to submit detailed mileage logs and have to even pay for commuting from our home addresses to the office. I gave up my company car for a van with no personal mileage allowed.

[scirocco265]

I checked and my Company definitely want that level of detail They're just a small employer with about 300 employees.

I already pay tax on the car and card as they're for private use, so would HMRC care for any more detail?

[GSP]

Record odometer at beginning and end of month.

Reset computer at start of business journey, record miles at end of business journey.

Add up all business journeys and take away from miles for the month... = private miles... They do not need anymore detail than that.

[sumo69]

Perhaps your employer is considering withdrawing private fuel as a benefit so are seeing what effect that has on its employees?

David

[ralphrj]

sumo69 said:

Perhaps your employer is considering withdrawing private fuel as a benefit so are seeing what effect that has on its employees?

Or perhaps they think that someone is using their fuel card to buy fuel for other people?

[anonymous-user]

Tannedbaldhead said:

HMRC are to blame. They want tax on benefit for free personal miles.

.

He's already said he is taxed on the BIK, so there is no HMRC requirement for detail, is there?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I'd fill it in as follows:

Tuesday: kerb crawling - 15 miles
Wednesday: days holiday so I could attend interview with major competitor - 85 miles
Thursday: Appointment at hospital to discuss my schizophrenia and overcoming increasing urges to attack boss with a meat clever - 12 miles
Friday: Revolutionary Communist Party AGM - 65 miles
Saturday: Meeting with dermatologist to discuss rare skin disease and if it can be passed on via paperwork - 20 miles.

That should put the tin hat on it!

[mph1977]

The Beaver King said:

I can't imagine why your employer would be after that amount of detail for your personal use of the car...

perhaps because that is the standard of record keeping required across the fleet as a whole ?

The Beaver King said:

If you haven't already, I suggest a quick chat and clarification that he does indeed want all that info.

Usually most businesses are happy with a monthly total of miles for that month plus a list of any business miles. I wouldn't be happy providing my personal trips to my employer.

The only reason I can think he'd want all that info is that somebody may be on the 'fiddle' and abusing their fuel usage. With a log of people's mileage across the board, it could identify or provide evidence against the person.

Other than that, I don't know. Definitely odd though.

Is it a big company?

Does the company operate a fleet of other vehicles as well ? it may well be that the rest ofthe fleet is expected to have that level of record keeping and it's being applied to the whole fleet blanketwise.

[LC23]

I would go with Davids view. Your company could well be looking to buy out fuel cards with an annual cash allowance instead. Mostly the tax on a fuel card benefit outweighs the actual private fuel being used so its not a benefit at all. If the company can demonstrate this to you they can provide a cash buy out and will also save themselves some employer NIC as well.

[matsoc]

Asking details about personal miles seems absurd and useless to me. It is a great waste of time too. I would certainly ask for clarifications about such a request.

[sumo69]

LC23 said:

I would go with Davids view. Your company could well be looking to buy out fuel cards with an annual cash allowance instead. Mostly the tax on a fuel card benefit outweighs the actual private fuel being used so its not a benefit at all. If the company can demonstrate this to you they can provide a cash buy out and will also save themselves some employer NIC as well.

Thanks - I thought I was being ignored!

I am interested to see the result of this thread.

David

[YesItsADiseasel]

GSP said:

Record odometer at beginning and end of month.

Reset computer at start of business journey, record miles at end of business journey.

Add up all business journeys and take away from miles for the month... = private miles... They do not need anymore detail than that.

Similar to what I do. However I always forget to record odometer readings at month end....So I work from my fuel card receipts as they give mileage.

One of our systems records business miles pretty well, so its a simple subtraction from the total figure.

[scirocco265]

Thanks for all of your responses. After much kicking off from most employees, my employer has decided that we are no longer required to provide that level of detail. Hooray!