Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Legal question

[dave996]

At the moment I work as a telecomms engineer, I am based from home and I am supplied with a company car (which can be used for personal use).

All milage that is used for company business is submitted weekly on an expense form and is billed at x pence per mile.

However, in the past 7 weeks I have noticed I am well and truely out of pocket so I am actualy paying to go to work!

Do I have any sort of case here or am I just p1ss1ng in the wind.

Cheers
Dave

[Mello-Yellow]

40 p per mile is what i claim. Does not included traveling to and from work.

If the job is a ten mile trip from work but only a 2 mile trip from home, put it on the expense form that you went to work first to get some tools etc then on to the job, works for me.





[Edited on 13-9-2005 by Mello-Yellow]

[dave996]

This is a company car so we don't pay for anything (road tax, insurance, service, mot) except our personal miles.

[chicken]

that's an odd system that you have Dave? Most employees get to claim x pence per mile if they are using their own car for business use (which is higher than just fuel cost as it is supposed to cover wear and tear as well).

I'm guessing the main issue is that for ease of calculation your company is paying out x as an approximation for the price of petrol and that the recent rises means this is not covered. You should probably raise it to the accounting department - I doubt it would be career-threatening to do this.

As there is an element of personal use you will also be taxed as a benefit in kind (ie a taxable perk of the job). The only way around this is to use it only for business use (even a commute will count as "personal" and it must be kept at business premises outside of working hours).

I'm guessing there is no choice of company car use or cash?

Bit more detail here.
http://www.bizhelp24.com/accounting/...any_cars.shtml

good luck! Chi

[Stu748R]

Dont talk to me about company cars,my company gave me a BMW 320D for the sake of company image,i also now have to pay for my private mileage(thanks Gordon Brown) but also have a negative tax code thanks to the fact that i get taxed on the retail price of the car(which is why This lot in power dont mind that cars are more expensive in the U K ) plus 3% as diesels are not emision frendly.Now before you all say that its cheaper than buying and running your own car let me say that i couldn't do my job without it,i do about 40.000 work related miles per annum(which company do you know go around and buy expensive cars for no reason) and i dont need a bl**dy car anyway.

Yep,i've had my rant now,thanks.

[dave996]

Chicken

I don't commute to work as I work from home.

We initially pay for a tank of fuel and charge back 13 pence per mile for business miles, so any personal mileage comes out of our pocket. The reason it is only 13 pence is because we don't have to pay any other running costs of the vehicle.

No we don't get a chose of vehicle, they try to have all engineers driving the same thing, for a proffesional look!!!

Cheers Mate

[JPM]

I had this years ago, the cars we were driving would only do about 25 to the gallon and we could claim 10 or 11p per mile, so you ended up paying towards your business mileage also.

Funny how that car kept breaking down but saying that when it was OK the journey's suddenly gained a few miles here and there too

One guy went as far as to disconnect the speedo at weekends put a 12v motor on and actually add miles so he could claim them back

[chicken]

A back of an envelope calculation says that if petrol is 95p/litre and you get more than 27.6 mpg then you are better off. I guess a lot of it depends on the kind of vehicle and driving that you are doing.

The 13p/mile has been decided by your company as the "right" amount to pay - some will get a little benefit, others lose out a little. If you think the policy is wrong you have every right to raise the issue to the policymaker. Your case will carry more weight if it is backed up by documented evidence as well as support from other employees in a similar position.

Like Stu though, make sure that you aren't being stung on the tax @ retail price of the car. You can double check with a tax accountant (oh Beancounter, where are you?) but I remember a loophole allowing you to get off if it's classed as a van?

[dave996]

We are being stung on the tax, Freelander TD4 retailed at £20k.
Cheers for that Chicken.

[AK]

interesting to see what your company pays per mile Dave.

We pay 40p per mile for own car, and 20p per mile for company car (non commuting of course)
If I cant/wont use a pool car then I'm well in for pennies, cos I'll either use my bike - or my smart - depending on location/meeting type etc.

How does this compare with others?

C