Anybody had experience with a company bike?

Off-topic
1

I currently use my bike for work, it’s happening more and more now… 2 or 3 days a week I’m on the bike riding somewhere for work.

I can only claim 24p per mile that I travel, that’s it. That barely covers my petrol these days…

Other costs associated with running the bike:
-servicing
-tyres, chains, brake pads etc
-mileage that adds up when riding for work
-knocks and bumps, general wear and tear
-vehicle depreciation due to use, mileage etc

-MOT
-tax
-insurance
-gear wear - boots, gloves, jackets, helmets, trousers etc

Plus the security risk of riding my bike around and parking it all over London and the uk.

I’m thinking about approaching my boss, to either ask for more money per mile, or ideally a company bike.

The four company directors drive rather nice BMW company cars, and one of our relatively new product specialists has also been given a lovely brand new Beemer estate car along with a fuel card, which he does not have to split for personal use unless he leaves the country. To be fair he carries stuff around almost daily so he does sort of need some transport.

Anyone got experience with having a company bike? It would be ideal for me if my work could buy me something like a mid 2000 cbr600f with a nice big top box to carry stuff around in, give me a fuel card

2

Sorry iPhone…

…a fuel card, pay for the tax and mot, all the servicing and suchlike…

Anything to add? Much alpprecisyer

3

no harm in asking dude see what they say

4

we have the same at work… 40p for a car, 24p for bike… tbh I think it’s because no one thought about how much bikes (rather than scooters) cost to run!

For me, I didn’t challenge it because I frequently claimed for going to the London office. this was acceptable but I was going way too often and not using my base office in Epsom often enough. So if I shouted about it they would have said: “just stay in Epsom” whereas I wanted to be in London to be able to meet up with the majority of the team based there. Plus it covers my petrol, just about and a bit more.

I had a sweet deal a year ago but now however all of that has changed and travel has been cut to the bare minimum so unless I am told I HAVE to attend a meeting in London, I never claim. This would be the good time to raise it as I don’t use the bike as often to go up there (and claim for it). But I doubt they would change it considering they have a pay freeze for the past 2 years… :frowning:

Let us know how you get on!

5

The 24p for bikes & 40p for cars mileage rates are the allowances defined by HMRC - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/travel.htm

6

A friend has a motorcycle as a company vehicle for his own company, I’m not sure if it’s the nature of his business but that’s not taxed like a company car would be… Perhaps an accountant might know if a motorcycle is considered a tool like a van instead of a perk like a car.

24p a mile sucks unless you have a scoot or other small bike; I suffer that too. annoying when my car is cheaper to run!!

7

If you get taxed on the bike as a benefit you’ll be worse off. To avoid that the bike should not be yours to use for personal use. That way anything you spend such as fuel parking etc is an expense and claimable.

Regarding your present situation, 24 isn’t too bad on longer journeys. Also people have been known to claim the car rate because the taxman doesn’t know how you did the journey. People have also known to inflate claimed mileages by saying they are travelling via some other office or whatever. Not suggesting you do these things because that would be breaking tax rules, just saying what some people have done and never had an issue. So raise it with work. Tell them that your bike isn’t available for these trips anymore unless you can find a way to make the numbers work. If not they can pay for couriers or taxis. If you have a smallish company with approachable bosses it should be fine.

8

I was given a print out, I did not read it. But I think it came from the tax office.

I do remember something about 24p

remember if using for work you need business insurance.

Sorry someone has already put the link up. Still early!

9

The rate is 45p for cars…

Surprised no-one has mentioned the company bike fiasco. We had one called Lisa, a right gobby sl*t

Anyway yes i agree 24p per mile is cheap and your boss is getting a good deal. He might offer to buy you a little scooter though, or you could get one yourself and cut your fuel bill in half…

10

The HRMC rates are the rates which are allowable by the HRMC as expenses. Your company can agree to pay you whatever it wants - but if you are paid more than 24p - the difference will then be taxable. So they could agree a rate of say 34p - but the extra 10p a mile would be deemed as income by the tax man. But you would still be better off that just receiving 24p a mile.

Is 24p proving to be a struggle? Would have thought it ok for an older bike - not so for a newer one (with higher depreciation). You don’t want to be out of pocket for sure so quite reasonable to ask the question of your company.

Good luck with it.

11

I thought 45p a mile seemed pretty good but if you do a bigger spread sheet and include all all the other expenses like tax, tyres, fines and so on it’s not that great really.

12

Don’t forget when you are asking to offer to use one of their company cars.

13

Does anybody find it ridiculous that you only get 4p per mile more than a bicycle? For fuel? :smiley:

14

Thanks for all the answers guys, much appreciated

Indeed, 24p is the amount specified by HMRC, anything above that will be taxable as has been mentioned.

Biggus - you mention a very good point, thanks for that. I’ll look into it.

At work, we have a pool car for use, but this is no good if I need to make a super quick blast into Soho, drop something off, and then be back in the office again an hour later.

Bike parking is super cheap as well.

So yeah, I could get a bike that was cheaper to run, better on petrol etc, but then I would have to spend again on buying said bike, insurance, tax, mot, servicing etc… I need a bike with mileage capability as well (so no scooters) as I occasionally have to go to Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Norwich, Birmingham etc…

Simon - I did at first try to claim the 45p car rate but was called up on it by the accounts department. I also can’t really say I’ve had to take a ‘detour’ either because I’ve done that before and now I have to provide a postcode of the place I went to visit, and the exact mileage it took to get there.

If the company invests in a ‘pool’ bike, then that would mean it would have to be kept at the office. So if I wanted to use it, I’d have to ride to work, swap bikes, and then possibly head off again on the company bike in the same direction I came from, if that makes sense.

It may be possible to set my home address as my official work address, in which case perhaps the bike could live at my house?

I’m going to put together some figures today - how many miles I’ve done for work this year, estimated time and money saved (over using public transport), the amount I have been able to claim for the usage, and then alongside it put an estimate of the costs incurred by myself…

Again, thanks for all contributions. And Kaos - good one :hehe: We also have a company bike here but I won’t name names :stuck_out_tongue:

15

About the accounts department pulling you up. One solution is to get your boss to tell the accounts department to mind their own fecking business! If he approves it, they record it and deal with the paperwork. That is the limit of their job FFS but being fecking accountants they get delusions of grandeur.

The point is your bike is possibly gonna average 40 - 50mpg but probably only doing 30mpg on a short town run. With petrol at just over £6 per gallon, that is costing 20p per mile in petrol alone - so basically tell them you can’t afford to subsidise their business anymore and if the accounts department want to be smartasses about what vehicle you chose to use for each trip, tell them to do one. Make it clear that you don’t want to be paying tax on the difference between 24p and 45p.

16

Another issue worth considering is that if you are using it for business rather than just travelling from home to your office and back it is not covered under the commuting clause in your insurance.

17

Yeah I have business insurance already so that’s covered, but good point.

Simon - I do like your view on accountants, it’s one that I share! :crazy: But unfortunately our Stazi accounts department will pull me up on the tiniest things like that… I can’t see them being persuaded to allow me the 45p rate, or paying the extra tax incurred if I get more than 24p per mile…

You’re also right about the MPG figures… I fill my tank which costs about £22… I get about 120 miles before the next fill up…

18

I can tell you as a self-employed individual I can claim 45p for the first 10,000 miles - after that it drops to 24p or something…

19

Oh man back in the self employed days it was quality - I could claim for tyres, chains, insurance, clothing, even the cost of the bike…

I do sometimes miss the perks of self employment…