Avoiding Company Car Tax
 

A few months ago I decided to part with my UK2000 Turbo as using it for 40k miles a year was doing my wallet no favours.... In a moment of madness I decided to get a Mk5 Golf GT TDi through my company (about 19k book), a few months on and my accountant is pestering the life out of me to fill in the P46 Inland Revenue form and has told me to prepare for a tax hike of about £200 per month (40% bracket).... this has persuaded me to get another scoob for 'personal' use, now I can technically class the Golf as a pool car and not get landed for the extra tax... thats the easy bit! Now there is no beating about the bush - I will use the Golf to commute to and from various places of work whether it be my office or to sites arround the UK (i.e. I set off from home most mornings and travel to site, not the office I work from). Where does this land me with regards the benefit in kind, can I avoid it by saying I use the Scoob and don't commute from home to the office, although I will commute to other places of work?

I think you'll only get away with the "pool car" thing if you can prove that there's no private mileage being done (and a commute from home to normal place of work counts as private mileage). The only way around it I can see is if you have an office where you keep the pool car, then you drive your own car to the office and the pool car to client sites, etc, returning the pool car to the office at the end of the day.

If the office and your house are co-located, I reckon you're stuffed. You can argue the technicalities, but with the IR the burden of proof is on you, and I think you'd have a hard time convincing them you do no private mileage. For example, if your own car packed up, would you take the pool car for a trip down the supermarket instead? Of course you would.

£200 p/m,what did you expect though? Thats not a lot to run a 19k car,and you can claim business miles to offset that providing you can proof they are business miles

Granted the IR are going to go the whole mile trying to prove the scenario. This is why I will get another scoob and run it for what I see as personal miles... it is very easy for me to keep a log of the journeys I make in the Golf and can prove that all were done for business use, furthermore keep receipts for the fuel I put in the scoob.

Yes I can leave the Golf at the office and commute to and from in the scoob, thats not the issue - I resent the idea of having to drive 25 miles to the office, collect the Golf and drive back the way I came to go up country, repeating the same nightmare when I come back... and extra 50 miles a day for what was all business related anyhow?

unless you work for home you will get taxed on the golf as a perk.Sorry :(

Ok so if I contract myself to work from home would that be the answer?

yes,but you will have to prove your office is at home

Do you not also have to show (by diaries showing names and mileages) that other employees have used the car in its true "pool" status?
Else it reverts back to being assigned for the sole use of one employee who gets hit with the tax?

Nick

Bugger :( I am going to speak to the accountants and get them to strike up a deal with the IR so it's down in black in white. It's not that I want to use the car for personal use I only want to use it for work - hence using my own personal car for anything not work related....

Will let you know how I get on!

From what I remember, the IR will not view the Golf as a pool car if you take it home at night. It has to be kept at your place of work and made available for everyone.

Thanks for all the comments, I'll let you know how I get on :)

I've heard metion of a (I think "unofficial") deal the IR will do with regard to minimal company car tax if you can show that you have a better car for personal use.

John.