Company Car Scheme (Salary Sacrifice , Tusker) Vs Taking Car Allowance

[Bounce]

Hi All,

So the company I work for has recently launched the new company car scheme, which is now Tusker and is offered via the salary sacrifice, which I understand saves on Tax and NI contributions. I am trying to weight up the options of what's best value for money.

The options I have are :-

Option 1 - Take the car allowance (£5,500 annual/£458.33 a month), then get my own car, but understand the £5,500 will be subject to normal tax and NI deductions, so in reality that £458.33 is more like £350 a month. Bearing in mind I have to get a car for that, Insure it, Tax it, MOT it every year and of course service it. Mileage claim back will be 45p per mile.

Option 2 - Take up the new company car scheme offered via Tusker, and receive a new company car, which includes all the usual expenses paid for which I will have to keep for 4 years, the only problem is some of the cars which are on offer on Tusker appear to be expensive?

Below screenshot is a Polestar 2 indictive cost effect on my take home pay.



Below screen shot is my current company car for comparison




I am expected to do business and personal mileage of around 16k-18k a year.

So is the new scheme better than the old scheme, or am I best taking option 1 and the car allowance?

 

[Bounce]

That seems expensive. Im on a conventional company car scheme, and the Polestar 2 (LR 220KW SM) is costing me 247 all in, thats for 4 years 25k miles pa.

I didnt think Salary Sacrifice was technically a company car scheme, so it will be interesting to find out the differences.

£247 a month?

They’ve marketed as the new company car scheme, I think they will give me my car allowance to put towards it. I don’t know how it works when you leave , the company I assume you give it back or pay some sort of termination fee?

 

[Bounce]

Yes a month.

Oh okay , and how you find the Polestar, what kind of mileage you get out of a full tank so the speak?, is the boot a decent size ? We have a dog and my wife is pregnant so need a fairly decent sized boot.

 

[Bounce]

Things to consider.

Do you actually want an EV?

What is your salary, therefor what tax band are you in. If in 20% band they are not that effective. These schemes can be very effective if you are in the child benefit claw back zone. Does it impact your pension (NHS employees have this issue)

However your BIK will be significantly reduced. So if you are wanting to be in a similar position it doesn’t look far off.

Can you buy or lease cheaper. There are some crazy cheep ICE and EV deals at the moment.

the difference in relative car cost is significant. MG HS vs Polestar 2 is £20-25k different! So not surprised it’s almost double the effective cost.

Most of these deals are all in, insurance, maintenance, tires and brake down. So factor that when considering the going my own way option.

Are there other options to a Polestar 2. A much cheaper option could be an MG4 for example. I don’t know what spec of Polestar 2 you have selected but the new RWD Tesla is a much nicer and cheeper car.

Edit: if your not set on EV, you could lease something like a Vauxhall Crossland or Citron C4 for about £300 per month with 1 month up front an a 20k miles 3 year lease

Im on £45k base salary a year, plus 20% bonus a year. My salary is expected to increase next year to £50k . So right on the 40% tax band.

I’m not a big fan of EV personally.

How I understand it I am currently forfeiting £450 car allowance , so if I get that £450 towards the car via salary sacrifice , then the pole star will only effectively cost me £100