7 Foot

I am currently in the middle of discussions with a Belgian company regarding a new job, working in the UK.

We have agreed most of the salary related issues etc. but we are having a little trouble regarding some sort of petrol/ car allowance.

I drive (and privately own) a MY00 Turbo and expect to cover anything between 20k and 30k miles per year. In my previous job (not covering nearly as many miles) I was allowed 40p per mile tax free. This I think is the maximum you are allowed tax free for up to 10k per year.


I have been offered:

35p per mile, up to 10k miles
and
20p per mile after 10k miles.

I was really hoping for 40p and 25p.


What are peoples thoughts and experiences?

OllyK

I get a monthly car allowance and 12p per mile

Stueyb

At work I get 40p for all my milage allowance, but on a recent run made about £100 profit would have been even more if I didnt have to buy huge buckets of optimax

mgg

if you take less than 40p a mile you will get the difference back at the end of the year, if you fill in a tax return form and all that bollox.
I am given 14p a mile, but as the government pay 40p a mile, if you do the right milage etc you will receive the difference back as a kind of tax rebate!
Some guys at my place received between £1500 and £3000 back from the government last year meaning they made money!!
Look into it and seriously work it out.

Faire D'Income

A common misconception. The difference between your company allowance and the official IR rate is only rebated as a percentage i.e your income tax bracket so if you're on 40% then you only receive 40% of the difference, not the full amount.

I've gone back to a fuel card, so I'd suggest you do the same and ask them for an allowance towards servicing etc.

mgg

All depends on your circumstances, job pay and what car you drive etc, each to there own!

RichWalk

IMO; any company who is willing to fund someone doing that mileage in a Scoob is either plain stupid, or making bucket loads of money! If one of my sales guys suggested using one I 'd suggest he started looking for another job.

Faire D'Income

Not as far as the Inland Revenue is concerned. I got away with it for one year and then got slammed this year, a different car has no bearing with the only difference being whether you're a higher rate tax payer or not.

ProperCharlie

obviously, what car you drive *does* make a diffence to the economics of claiming business mileage. it is hard to make it add up, even at £0.40 a mile, in a car that does 20 mpg and has the associated running costs of an impreza. drive a cheap car that does 35-40 mpg and it can work out in your favour.

Scooby96

or 55-60mpg and your laughing........

I used to drive a 2.0D and was able to claim 60ppm!!!!!

Elmer Fudpucker

I work in Belgium for a UK company and get 50p per mile(type UK STi PPP).

carl

If you think about it, this is obvious. If it was true that the IR made up the difference, all companies would pay like 1p a mile, and expect the IR to make up the rest.

carl

If a company is paying you a mileage rate to run your own car, it's none of their business what car you choose to run. I did 30k a year for 3 years in my MY00 Scoob. It wasn't that uneconomical, because the servicing is pretty cheap. It felt damned safe when it was raining. And I spent 3 hours a day enjoying driving, rather than 3 hours a day dragging along in a rattly old diesel, bored out of my skull. For me, that was worth the extra that it cost me to run.

YMMV, of course

7 Foot

I won't even bother replying to RichWalk as Carl has summed everything up perfectly. I can't afford and don't really have space for 2 cars, don't want a diesel and I'll be buggered if I'm selling the Scoob.

The petrol card solution would be a good one if it didn't outline the thirst of these cars. After a few months I am sure the company would start to pressure me into a more economical car. Equally having them pay for servicing would mean me creating a bill every few months.

I really need to hear from someone in exactly the same position as me - owning an Impreza and getting a mileage allowance.

I much appreciate all the input so far but the mists haven't quite cleared yet....

Faire D'Income

Well, I don't know what else I can tell you as I've been running an Impreza for 18 months totalling 50,000 miles and I was using a petrol allowance.

What else do you want?

7 Foot

FD - You have a company that pays for the fuel in a thirsty car with a fuel card, they seem happy to do this, my co. might not and I don't want to feel pressure to change my car.

I thought it is obvious what I want - a few options.

tmo

I have a MY99 cover around 30k miles per annum and getting a mileage allowance.

7 Foot

tmo - Don't tease me . Can't you give me any more info.? How much etc.

tmo

I claim at the Gov rates 40p and 25p, any more and you get shafted by the IR. Any less and you can claim it as tax allowance.
Works well for me.

Anything specific you want to know PM me