Business Needs Car

alexthecheese · 15 Sep 2009 at 17:57

Business Needs Car.

I am currently using a hire car for work, at considerable expense to the company, as I require it 5 days a week. An alternative is to get a business-needs car - providing my business case gets approved.

The car on offer is an Astra Club ecoFlex 5 door... thingy. The car comes with a personal usage charge of £27 per month.

Because it's business needs, would I still get charged tax and whatnot on it? I thought initially that it would be just the £27 a month tax, but now thinking it could be more. A tax calculator on our intranet states that it would be £60. Which isn't too bad for a car really, as I would have course get to use it for my own private use, but still - it's an expense that I don't currently have.

Dr Who · 15 Sep 2009 at 17:59

Leave the car at work, make it unavailable for private use = no tax

alexthecheese · 15 Sep 2009 at 18:05

I can't leave it at work, it's what I use to get to and from work - work is 175 miles away!

Gaygle · 15 Sep 2009 at 18:09

alexthecheese said:
I can't leave it at work, it's what I use to get to and from work - work is 175 miles away!

Jebus - you do 1750 miles a week commuting?! And even worse, in an Astra ecoFlex?! :eek:

OllyM · 15 Sep 2009 at 18:12

You will have to pay company car tax at the going rate, depending on the CO2 output of the car.

alexthecheese · 15 Sep 2009 at 18:13

Lol - no - not that much of a commute!! That would be insane. Literally.

I work away from home 5 days a week, so I have a 175 mile commute Monday and Friday, then a few miles each way to work in between.

alexthecheese · 15 Sep 2009 at 18:14

OllyM said:
You will have to pay company car tax at the going rate, depending on the CO2 output of the car.

That's what I thought. It's only 119g co2, cat B, so it's quite low. It means about £60 according to the calculator.

Still... I want that £60. This with another option I'm looking at of getting an apartment down here will cost me even more money. Argh. :rolleyes:

monkey_boy · 16 Sep 2009 at 16:05

What grade hire car do you get? What incentive is there for you to take the Astra? £60 isn't a huge amount, but if your current arrangement isn't costing you anything, maybe you could negotiate a raise to offset the cost to you of a company car? After all, you'd be doing them a favour by saving them squillions in hire car costs...