I3 as company car
Discussion
from a tax PoV it's a no brainer - do it...
the big BUT is that you need to be really honest about what sort of mileage you will need to do, if you are a genuine business user and do actual work business in your car, or if you are a commuting only 'perk' business user. You need to carefully evaluate how far and how often you go. Realistically, a pure EV i3 is only good for commuting, you are realistically limited to a 30 mile 'there and back' journey per day before you really start sweating, the Rex takes a lot of that anxiety away, but if you are repping, doing hundreds of miles/day, that could also get boring.
What's your mileage profile likely to be?
the big BUT is that you need to be really honest about what sort of mileage you will need to do, if you are a genuine business user and do actual work business in your car, or if you are a commuting only 'perk' business user. You need to carefully evaluate how far and how often you go. Realistically, a pure EV i3 is only good for commuting, you are realistically limited to a 30 mile 'there and back' journey per day before you really start sweating, the Rex takes a lot of that anxiety away, but if you are repping, doing hundreds of miles/day, that could also get boring.
What's your mileage profile likely to be?
My current commuter is a. 70's 911. Very sustainable.
Costs me around 1200 a year out of my post tax profits to run and about that to fuel it annually.
I claim back roughly what I spend in fuel on annual mileage.
It is slightly appreciating, but at the same time it has an opportunity cost of tied up capital.
An i3 will cost me something like 300-400 a month pre tax - post tax this is closer to 150-200 a month. So it will be twice the cost of the 911 in real terms, but with no potential for a bill to jump out on me.
However if I need a Rex, the BiK starts to bite earlier so it's less attractive..
Is there any other upside to company car ownership I am missing?
I have the option of a fuel card but I figure on my low mileage this makes no sense. Can I still claim mileage on the EV or a petrol car if I use one (eg due to EV range restrictions?)
I quite fancy an i3 anyway so may just do it, but I do want to know how this actually works first...
Just don't think that Company Car insurance is automatically going to be easy to find ....
Aviva direct quoted Company Car insurance at 3500 with a 12 year no claims discount, and the BMW insurance by comparison is only set-up for Private purchasers.
59 years main driver, three others down to 27 with PSV and LGV advanced skills, low rated overnight garaging / battery charging, only three points (almost gone) between all four ... 3500 with 60% NCB ?
So how about the driver insuring the car with the Company as owner ?
Insurance companies say this can quite legitimately be done but ...
BMW say the car must be registered to the person named on the cover note, and that this must match the name of the purchasing Company, --- making it impossible for the driver/company owner to insure with the Company as beneficial owner of the policy. Even if this is available from a number of insurance companies at an equivalent cost of 1000, --- still expensive ! 650 for a husband / wife team. Both no NCB !
Since I am the main driver and I own the Company, and the car is stored at my (the owners) home address and the registered office of the company, this raises a very interesting question. The dealership so far say they cannot register the car.
Which is a shame since the car has been invoiced to the Company and was as requested paid for directly from the Company bank account a couple of days ago ...
Nobody is misrepresenting ownership, nobody is misrepresenting the insurable risk, nobody is placing at risk the validity of the insurance, but the dealer says that DVLA will not allow them to register the car ?
Could this possibly be correct ?
I'll keep you informed ..
Aviva direct quoted Company Car insurance at 3500 with a 12 year no claims discount, and the BMW insurance by comparison is only set-up for Private purchasers.
59 years main driver, three others down to 27 with PSV and LGV advanced skills, low rated overnight garaging / battery charging, only three points (almost gone) between all four ... 3500 with 60% NCB ?
So how about the driver insuring the car with the Company as owner ?
Insurance companies say this can quite legitimately be done but ...
BMW say the car must be registered to the person named on the cover note, and that this must match the name of the purchasing Company, --- making it impossible for the driver/company owner to insure with the Company as beneficial owner of the policy. Even if this is available from a number of insurance companies at an equivalent cost of 1000, --- still expensive ! 650 for a husband / wife team. Both no NCB !
Since I am the main driver and I own the Company, and the car is stored at my (the owners) home address and the registered office of the company, this raises a very interesting question. The dealership so far say they cannot register the car.
Which is a shame since the car has been invoiced to the Company and was as requested paid for directly from the Company bank account a couple of days ago ...
Nobody is misrepresenting ownership, nobody is misrepresenting the insurable risk, nobody is placing at risk the validity of the insurance, but the dealer says that DVLA will not allow them to register the car ?
Could this possibly be correct ?
I'll keep you informed ..
my wife and i insured it (declaring the owner correctly as alphabet)
we have a weird situation insofar as we made a clerical error vis a vis insurance over the years where i arrange all the insurance (no particular reason, it's just one of MY jobs) and on 'the wifes' car always make it very clear she is the main driver etc.
anyway, they have been putting me down as the policy holder and it turns out my wife (who is accident free for 18 years) has no NCB, DOH.....
Anyway, that said, our policy is 700odd which by the sound of it, isn't too bad, 'normal' insurance for us is normally 400 and being group 20, i was expecting it to be similar, tbh
we have a weird situation insofar as we made a clerical error vis a vis insurance over the years where i arrange all the insurance (no particular reason, it's just one of MY jobs) and on 'the wifes' car always make it very clear she is the main driver etc.
anyway, they have been putting me down as the policy holder and it turns out my wife (who is accident free for 18 years) has no NCB, DOH.....
Anyway, that said, our policy is 700odd which by the sound of it, isn't too bad, 'normal' insurance for us is normally 400 and being group 20, i was expecting it to be similar, tbh
Thanks for the feedback, I have no idea why it was so difficult.
Maybe partly because the dealer was not happy to have me insure the car in my own company name.
And maybe Aviva were hopeful that they were on a promise ??
Either way I have other insurance with NFU, Manning, REISS, Aviva and corporate brokers ... 11 cars in total.
Insurance in the end came to 650 for 10,000 miles per annum. My corporate broker said that only Aviva would insure, and they could insure me to insure the company vehicle via the broker, when they wanted only to charge me 3500 to insure the company vehicle as the company -- without the option for me personally to insure the company vehicle --- if that makes any sense whatsoever.
To the car. Amazing. Picked it up today. Learnt a lot. Very intuitive. Quite a lot to remember but by not reading the manual I am learning all via the menu options --- and to be honest, a lot is different from the manual.
60+ per 10,000 miles / per annum servicing. No road tax. 1.25 per full charge overnight equates to less than 200 per 10,000 miles in fuel, and it is a genuinely good and entertaining drive.
I've copied 10Gb of music across and set my radio channels and i am only just scratching the surface ... yet to load the Sat-Nav, phone, play with the concierge etc etc etc.
This car is a piece of jewellery ... and 3.5 miles per KwH so far.
As an aside, the suspension is also silent yet supple over the humungous pot-holes we have in a couple of unadopted roads near-by.
Maybe partly because the dealer was not happy to have me insure the car in my own company name.
And maybe Aviva were hopeful that they were on a promise ??
Either way I have other insurance with NFU, Manning, REISS, Aviva and corporate brokers ... 11 cars in total.
Insurance in the end came to 650 for 10,000 miles per annum. My corporate broker said that only Aviva would insure, and they could insure me to insure the company vehicle via the broker, when they wanted only to charge me 3500 to insure the company vehicle as the company -- without the option for me personally to insure the company vehicle --- if that makes any sense whatsoever.
To the car. Amazing. Picked it up today. Learnt a lot. Very intuitive. Quite a lot to remember but by not reading the manual I am learning all via the menu options --- and to be honest, a lot is different from the manual.
60+ per 10,000 miles / per annum servicing. No road tax. 1.25 per full charge overnight equates to less than 200 per 10,000 miles in fuel, and it is a genuinely good and entertaining drive.
I've copied 10Gb of music across and set my radio channels and i am only just scratching the surface ... yet to load the Sat-Nav, phone, play with the concierge etc etc etc.
This car is a piece of jewellery ... and 3.5 miles per KwH so far.
As an aside, the suspension is also silent yet supple over the humungous pot-holes we have in a couple of unadopted roads near-by.
ChrisW. said:
Anybody know if the Vat can be recovered ?
My accountants suggested this could only be done if 100% business use ...
I'm pretty sure you can only recover VAT if it's got a 1 tonne loading capacity too - for a purchase. My accountants suggested this could only be done if 100% business use ...
However if you are leasing you can claim back 50% of the VAT on the lease - but I'm not sure of the rules are it has to be for pure business use - without checking HMRC website. IIRC you can get a mileage log and pay adjustment taxes, but never having done it and always opted for claiming 45p / mile on my accountants advice. Need to do a spreadsheet again to look at i3. But I wouldn't be surprised is still the most cost effective way to own one.
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