Company Car Tax

[audi321]

I am an employee, and I have a 'base' value for which to choose a company car (through a lease company).

However I can 'upgrade' the car by paying an additional monthly contribution (both for an upgraded model and for optional extras)

My question is.....are these payments that I make offsetable against the P11D benefit? And also, if my monthly payments are greater than the P11D benefit, can I reclaim some tax from the PAYE I pay?

Many thanks

[bogie]

www.comcar.co.uk has a calculator that will work it out for you.

[audi321]

I don't need a calculator, I know how to work the CO2 P11D BIK out, thats not what I'm asking

[texasjohn]

you can offset what you pay from your own money to upgrade the car, its not like for like however

i.e. contribute £100 you dont get £100 tax relief

your employer must mark this as 'contribution for your private use' for the offset to apply. Most will do so.

The HMRC form (P46 IIRC) has a section for it.

BTW the comcar calculator can accomodate the impact of you paying something towards it and calculate your resultant tax burden so the previous poster had a valid point. You may wish to eat some humble pie and offer a 'sorry'!!

[audi321]

Sorry bogie! Hadn't even looked at it! I'll have a look at the P46 requirements

[texasjohn]

Happy car hunting

Just consider you might get bored with the car after a year or so (I have)

Stuck with the bloody thing til 02/2012 !

[audi321]

I don't have a choice unfortunately. Previous companies have always had a cash option, but new one doesn't. Car or nothing.

I can have anything from Audi or Vauxhall range, gonna go for Audi.

Big question is, do I get a car which has no upgrade costs and as clean as a whistle (1.6TDI A3) or pay extra and get a TT TDI! The answer to my original question will help me decide.

[texasjohn]

I went for the cleanest available at the time; 118d with some options...I've since bought a weekend car as the performance is a bit lacking and of course running a second car costs.

I would have been better off in the long run and not got bored with the performance if I had upgraded and got a 125i/130i or 123d (TT TDi is another good example)

[bogie]

audi321 said:

Sorry bogie! Hadn't even looked at it! I'll have a look at the P46 requirements

well there you go

..at my place, when I joined, I asked what car I could have ..the allowance gets us into a fully expensed, with fuel, £30-35K car ...not bad if you want to drive a new 320D every 3 years of course

we can top up as much as we like and have pretty much anything ....so off you go to work out the tax (at the time) on a new Noble M400 LOL

...I quickly figured out, for anything remotely interesting (for me, thats something quick with a big engine) then the tax liability was plain stupid, and it was better to take the cash, and buy whatever I liked, used, a few years old and pay for it myself...

we are lucky we still get the fuel card, and a card + private car (with an allowance) is much more tax efficent for me personally. Usually, with the amount of business miles I do, the tax refund covers my service costs, and ive had "free" fuel all year