Company Car vs Car Allowance

GinG said:
I took the company car option and have it fully expensed.

The way I see it:

Anything goes wrong it is under warranty
Needs servicing, no problem send it in, pay with Credit Card and then expense the company.
Scrape the alloy? -1000 man points but who cares not my car!
Start seeing stone chips and slight marks on the car? Who cares not my car!
Needs a wash? Take it to the machine wash...swirl marks...who cares not my car!
Leave the company or possibly worse get made redundant...hand car back and no need to worry about the next pay check to pay for the loan/PCP payment on a private car usually paid for through an allowance.

Obviously there are many other opinions people may have but this car is the first company car I have had...and the least stressful to own!
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Whilst it's 'not your car' and so you feel as if you needn't worry about it, you're almost certainly paying a big sum of money (be it directly or indirectly) to 'not own' it anyway, so it's an attitude I struggle to understand.

If a car is costing me several hundred quid a month I want it to be kept nice regardless of whether it belongs to me, the company, a lease firm or Dave down the road. It's not exactly a 'free' car.
 
Kenai said:
Whilst it's 'not your car' and so you feel as if you needn't worry about it, you're almost certainly paying a big sum of money (be it directly or indirectly) to 'not own' it anyway, so it's an attitude I struggle to understand.

If a car is costing me several hundred quid a month I want it to be kept nice regardless of whether it belongs to me, the company, a lease firm or Dave down the road. It's not exactly a 'free' car.
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Only costing me £85 per month including all fuel paid for...working for an EU company with certain loopholes has its advantages :D
 
GinG said:
Only costing me £85 per month including all fuel paid for...working for an EU company with certain loopholes has its advantages :D
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I suppose it might be that cheap if you didn't get offered an allowance as an alternative, for me it would effectively be costing several hundred in loss of allowances before I even started to think about tax costs or mileage rates.
 
Kenai said:
I suppose it might be that cheap if you didn't get offered an allowance as an alternative, for me it would effectively be costing several hundred in loss of allowances before I even started to think about tax costs or mileage rates.
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Yes I guess when you look at it like that, absolutely the potential of thousands per year lost.

The way I see it is a fully expensed car at £85 per month is brilliant, though I have never had the benefit of allowance + mileage paid etc.
 
GinG said:
I took the company car option and have it fully expensed.

The way I see it:

Anything goes wrong it is under warranty
Needs servicing, no problem send it in, pay with Credit Card and then expense the company.
Scrape the alloy? -1000 man points but who cares not my car!
Start seeing stone chips and slight marks on the car? Who cares not my car!
Needs a wash? Take it to the machine wash...swirl marks...who cares not my car!
Leave the company or possibly worse get made redundant...hand car back and no need to worry about the next pay check to pay for the loan/PCP payment on a private car usually paid for through an allowance.

Obviously there are many other opinions people may have but this car is the first company car I have had...and the least stressful to own!
Click to expand...

Pretty much the reasons I also went for a company car as well when I was in the UK. On top of that I was ragging around 20k miles per year on it.....better it on someone else's car than mine!

If I remember correctly I think I was paying around 300 a month for a BMW 520d.
 
fastwunz said:
I've got a company car and do a lot of miles every year. My company pay zero towards my mileage though (don't get me started on that). Apparently I can claim mileage thigh from the taxman - can someone point me in the right direction as to how to do this? I'm guessing I need to track my journeys etc?
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I take a car allowance and claim mileage for work journeys.
firstly, Is your main place of work in the same place e.g. office because if not you can claim for the travel to work too.
I work as a manager on a building site and as long as I am not on the same site for more than 2 years it is classed as a temporary place of work and can claim the commute to and from.

these figures may not be 100% accurate but they are about right. you can claim
up to 35ppm for the first 10,000 miles
up to 25ppm for the rest.
so, lets say you do 20,000 miles its 10,000 * 35pence plus 10,000 * 25pence.
should your employer give you a mileage allowance you must take that off the max you can claim.

BUT DON'T FORGET......

you are only claiming the tax back on the amount you have already paid out so the figure you get from the example above, (£6000) is then taxed and this is the figure you get. e.g. if you are a 25% taxpayer, you will receive £1500 back.

you will need to fill in a self assessment tax return to claim this back. simple enough to do, just ring up your local office and ask them how to sort out a form. I use the government gateway website and do it all online. very simple.

JB
 
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Also, to the OP

getting a company car depends on many things and as everyone has said on here, you have to do some sums. also below is an example and about right.

A hassle free company car costs whatever the Rate is. You should know this before getting the car. I used to get a car list and it would say it on there. Also note it will go up each year.

I used to have to have a car that was 5 years old or less.

I would buy a 1 year old car (with a trade-in from previous car).
pay it off with a 2 year loan and have nothing to pay for 2 years.
factoring in insurance, tax, tyres, services and any repairs I reckon I MADE £100 per month on average.
I didn't buy any fancy bmw's or mercs or the like, I was using this as a way of maximising the money I got.

well worth looking into.

JB
 
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