Posts

Managing your “off the radar” fleet

Our current blog is a guest blog courtesy of www.carlease4u.com and is relevant to employers that do not offer a company car to its employees, but do require their employees to travel on business trips.

 

Even if you do not offer a company car allowance or a car lease, there is lots of important information you need to be aware of, particularly if your employees use their own car for business trips.  Here is what you need to consider when looking at ALL vehicles.

Employers retain responsibility for an employee’s safety, even when the employee drives their own car for business. Often, this can cause unforeseen problems, as these vehicles are typically “off the radar” of most companies — certainly in respect of being fit for purpose.

Whilst many companies were unwinding their company car fleets due to increase company car taxation (although some green cars do have a relatively low tax burden), many businesses have failed to recognise that they would still have duty of care responsibilities over their employees who drive their own vehicles on company business.  These vehicles are referred to as a company’s “off the radar” fleet.

Here are a few tips that should help businesses to manage its “off the radar” fleet:

  • Support your “off the radar” fleet employees, so that they make an informed decision about taking a Company Car Allowance in lieu of a company car. Employees could spend the next three or four years wondering if they have made the right decision. Help them by explaining exactly what each choice will mean to them in terms of their personal tax position and other items of expenditure associated with running a car.
  • Take advice from an accountant to determine the exact tax liabilities/savings of company cars, for both employees and employers. There are a number of lower CO2 emission cars out there that are not as bad as you may think from a tax point of view.
  • Regularly check the driving licences of your employees. Perhaps you could make it compulsory for all business drivers to regularly submit copies of their driving licences, as businesses are required to have these records by law. Better still, use a third party to run a thorough check with the DVLA.
  • Where an employee’s own vehicle is used for business journeys, restrict their choices to exclude soft-tops or old cars. Staff will be resistant to any policy that comes across as too heavy-handed, but it’s fair enough to mandate that the vehicle has four doors, four seats and is of professional, business-like appearance.
  • Invest in a robust mileage tracking tool (or procedure), preferably with a payroll reporting facility.
  • Tighten-up the management of a mixed fleet. Many companies offer a casual version of this by offering car allowances and company cars alongside each other, but a specialist mixed fleet provider will manage a mixed fleet in the most tax-efficient way, and take care of all the mile-logging, occupation road risk and general administration tasks. This type of scheme would only be suitable for fleets of over 50 cars.

To find out more about car leasing, or if you would simply like a chat about leasing, visit www.carlease4u.com.

Childcare

Could childcare save you tax?

Do you have children and pay for some kind of childcare? Did you know that you could pay less tax by utilising the childcare voucher scheme to pay for some, if not all, of your childcare costs? If like me one of your children has started school/preschool, which is not yet state funded, you will be paying for the cost of this childcare out of your after tax income. You may qualify for childcare vouchers which could save you around £300 for every £1,000 you spend on childcare. In a nutshell, the scheme means you pay less tax/NIC and your childcare costs are still paid for. Basic rate tax paying parents can use the vouchers to pay for up to £243 of childcare a month, so for two parents that’s £486 a month! There are a number of things to watch out for though:-

  • An “earnings assessment” needs to be carried out
  • You need to ensure all the relevant paperwork is in place
  • If you are employed you will need to discuss it with your employer
  • There is a sliding scale for those who are higher rate tax payers
  • If you run your own limited company and are not operating this scheme, maybe you should contact a proactive accountant
  • Specific scheme rules apply

If you are an employee, or run your own limited company, you could benefit from childcare vouchers. If your current accountant has not mentioned this to you, perhaps you should get in touch to find out some of the other ways we could help you #keepmoremoney

Company cars

Company cars are rubbish, right?

You would be forgiven for thinking that the personal tax on company cars would put your right off having one through your business. But it’s worth considering them as a tax planning vehicle (pardon the pun) to help #keepmoremoney in YOUR pocket.

How it works…
The personal tax charge on company cars is based on the official CO2 emissions of the car along with it’s showroom price when new. If the CO2 emissions and showroom price are relatively low, the tax charge will also be relatively low.

“Green” cars…
There is a reasonably new breed of cars now on the market with exactly that, lower showroom prices and low CO2 emissions. The tax liability on these cars is therefore significantly lower than you may think.  A full list of the cars by CO2 emissions can be found at http://bit.ly/1kKGpvq, the CO2 bands to look at from a tax point of view are the first three up to 94g/km.

The tax bill…
Take the Toyota Auris Hybrid, which is one of the more expensive cars, with a showroom price of almost £23,000 and CO2 emissions of 91g/km. The annual personal tax burden for the company car and having all the fuel would be approximately £985 for a 20% taxpayer, and £1,970 for a 40% taxpayer.

The tax savings…
The tax saving comes about as ALL the car running costs, including petrol, can be paid for by your company, resulting in a corporation tax saving starting at approximately £450 (based on estimated running costs, but will depend on your annual petrol and other running costs). In addition, the company gets a corporation tax reduction of £4,600 in year one due to the low CO2 emissions!

The overview…
Sadly there will still be some tax to pay on having a company car, and it’s not something that should be done on a whim. But, if you are thinking of changing your family car, it’s worth exploring if a company car would be a good option. Don’t forget that the above only applies to brand new cars.

Guiding you through it…
Although a little complex, if you’re thinking of changing your car it’s worth getting in touch to see how we could help you #keepmoremoney
t: 07869 285081
e: steve@keepmoremoney.co.uk