Private use of a company vehicle

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

My Brother in Law is a PAYE employee. He has a company car that is taxed in the normal way through his P11D. He has asked his company if he can take the vehicle to Andorra on a skiing holiday. They have said that he can but will need to pay 4.8p per mile for this. They didn’t explain what this charge is for nor who it is payable to of how. I have suggested he asks exactly what this charge is.


This does sound a bit suspect to me. I thought that if you have a company car, you are then taxed for unlimited private use. Can the company do this? If he wanted to work part time as a taxi driver, I could understand it but not for a holiday. I know he’s going to Europe but if we didn’t have 21 miles of water between here and France, I couldn’t even see an issue being considered.

If he does have to pay it, can he then not claim it as an "employee contribution"?

[NotAllThere]

I last had a company car in 2001, with free fuel, so perhaps the laws have changed. To take the car to the continent I had to get a green card from the company insurers, the registration documents and a letter from the company authorising me as a driver. As the fuel card didn't work in France, I had to put my fuel costs through expenses.

So I'm quite surprised to hear of a charge being made to the employee. Perhaps it's a condition from the leasing company? Definitely worth checking if it counts as an employee contribution - it should do, on the face of it.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

It's unclear what the charge is. It sounds dodgy to me. If he's being taxed on the asset, he should be allowed to use it....

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

OK, his company say that it's because the lease company charge them 4.8p per mile over 25k miles a year. He's already done 20k (95% on business) this year so his company are trying to pass the excess charge on to him.

Surely if he's being taxed on on vehicle as being available, he shouldn't then have to pay 4.8p/mile to use it?