Cycle to work scheme - business bicycle purchase

[williaa68]

For various reasons I need a new bike. At the moment I use a combination of trains and boris bikes on travel to see clients, some of my clients are within cycling distance, some aren't. My largest client is in London but I could use showers, storage in their office.

A couple things on which I'd appreciate thoughts / advice:

(1) Should I sign my company (employees are me and my wife) up to cycle scheme or similar or just have the company buy the bike?
(2) I know the cyclescheme limits have been abolished but if the company is buying as an asset can I buy whatever i like (like a fancy titanium bike costing £7k...)

Thanks in advance

[anonymous-user]

If the bike is wholly for business use then the company can just buy it and you can use it on company business

And yes, the company can buy any bike it wants and pay for the maintenance of it etc. If specific things are needed to use the bike: clothes, shoes, lights, helmet, lock and they are also only used for company business, the company can buy those too

In that situation, you could be asked to prove that it is used on company business only. Could.

Or you can buy a bike and claim mileage from the company at 20p per business mile

The cycle to work scheme is not the best way for the situation you describe

[williaa68]

Thank you. Having dug a little further it seems that if the business use is less than 50% (depends a bit on how much I manage to commute on it) then there will be a BIK charge of 20% but I could purchase the bike end of year 1 for the HMRC value, which is apparently 25%.

So £5k bike + vat = £6k. Year 1 BIK 1200, tax = 540, plus employers NI of 13.8% = £165.60. Buy end of year 1 for £1500 (£1250+£250vat). 100% capital allowances on £5k, £750 VAT recovered.

All up that seems like a fairly tax efficient structure?