Company Car - Private use excluded?

[crofty1984]

Hello all,

There's been some discussion at work and we've been given the option to opt out of using the company car for private miles. It's been kicked off by a recalculation of how the private mileage fuel deductions work (we don't get paid fuel for private use).
We have the option of signing an annual declaration of not using the car for private use. Would this mean I don't pay company car BIK at all?
I have another car anyway, so if so, this could save me a few quid a month. If it matters, as a field sales person with a home office, the car would be kept at my house.

The exact words were:
"You also have the option to opt out of private use. Your company vehicle is to ensure that you are able to perform your daily business duties without hindrance and in a professional manner. If you choose this option it is a requirement that you keep accurate details of your business mileage & complete an annual deceleration that you are not using your vehicle for private use. Also once you cannot opt in and out of private use as you wish, it is either one or the other. MPG’s will also be monitored to ensure they are not unreasonable."

Thanks

[markiii]

i believe so, no BIK if only for work use

[RicksAlfas]

Are you sure it isn't just fuel they are referring to?

It's very hard to prove a company car is only used for business.
Ideally it would be left at work overnight as commuting is private use.

[crofty1984]

RicksAlfas said:

Are you sure it isn't just fuel they are referring to?

It's very hard to prove a company car is only used for business.
Ideally it would be left at work overnight as commuting is private use.

Sure it's not fuel. We've always had to pay (via salary deductions) for private fuel. I'm not 100% sure on the way it works, but I guess it's something like if 90% of the mileage in our logbook is business, of the £300 that month of fuel we've put in on the company card, then 10% is deducted for private. Though it may have changed recently, which has prompted this discussion.
I have no "commute" as such. There's no regular office other than the one that's in my house. I'm always driving round my "patch" visiting different customers. I may go to our HQ occasionally, but that's probably less than once a month.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

The only way to do this is to get your fleet insurance company to restrict the use on the certificate to business use only, excluding pleasure use and excluding commuting. If you send that to HMRC, you won't have to pay BIK. But if you work from and office etc and not from home, you will need to leave the car at work overnight. So effectively it becomes a pool car.

[shep1001]

Not worth the hassle. Stop at the supermarket on the way home...... HMRC may consider this as private use.

Suck it up until 2020 then get an electric car. BIK tax even at 40% will be under £30/month unless you have something fruity from Tesla or BMW.

[Sheepshanks]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

The only way to do this is to get your fleet insurance company to restrict the use on the certificate to business use only, excluding pleasure use and excluding commuting. If you send that to HMRC, you won't have to pay BIK. But if you work from and office etc and not from home, you will need to leave the car at work overnight. So effectively it becomes a pool car.

There are past cases that say insurance doesn't matter.

As long as the employer prohibits private use, and has a system for monitoring it, then that's fine.

[FWIW]

You could add a gps tracker to log your journeys? ...but I guess even those can be fudged.
I’d be wanting the company to indemnify me from the tax risk.

[55palfers]

Thousands of van drivers have been doing this for years.

If you are WFH then every journey is work miles from the time you roll off the drive.

As for the trip to Sainsbury's - you will be needing fuel I suppose....

[Sheepshanks]

55palfers said:

Thousands of van drivers have been doing this for years.

If you are WFH then every journey is work miles from the time you roll off the drive.

As for the trip to Sainsbury's - you will be needing fuel I suppose....

Van drivers can make incidental stops without a BIK issue arising.