Classic car through the company

[pickle]

OK,

Im in the market to buy a classic car
(i dont own a car at the moment and ride the tube to my clients sites).

Someone has suggested I buy this through the company as "company car".
Now I know this is normally not the best idea, but as I would do very little company milage I wouldnt get to use much of the 40p per mile allowance.

Also,as the car would be worth less than 15k the benfit in kind value is calculated as a percentage of the cars original list price (say 1k), with the percentage based on the cars engine size (the old cars wont have an official emissions rating). Also, as it will be pre 1973, there will be no need for road tax (and ill also get cheper classic car insurance).

My question is then, exactly what can I have the company pay for

Eg &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp – The cost of the car
-&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Insurance
-&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Spares / repair bills
-&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Other Running costs (MOT’s)
-&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Oil and Petrol ????


And then what would the benefit in kind be that I would have to pay tax on, given an original list price of, say £1000, and an engine size of 1998cc. Does this somehow include the cost of insurance etc, or is it purely based on the list price of the car.


Oh, and the car Im looking at is a Rover 2000, 1969. Anyone ever had one?

[MisterGoof]

Sorry cant help but really

[nobody here but us chickens]

classic cars

As I understrand it you could claim ALL running costs, inc insurance, garage bills, etc. Your fuel allowance will be lower. cost is original list price. I would make a point of riding it around from time to time so you do some business miles in it.

Check what happens about depreciation (ha) cos you can probably sell it to your self for threpenceha'penny in a years time.

The IR have a leaflet on it (try searching the web site or ring the helpline)

In fact the only issue I see is that Rover 2000 = 'classic' thing - sorry dont get it.

<flame war on>Im sure you have your reasons but why not buy a decent car ?<flame war off>

[pickle]

Re: classic cars

All the running costs sounds good to me )

Is the rover 2000 really that bad? Maybee a question for the main board. I've never driven one to be honest, I just have the chance to buy one in mint condition at the right price (some old duffer has had it for years, < 35k on the clock!)

[pickle]

Is this right?

OK, I've been reading the IR sites, leaflets etc.

www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/...y_cars.htm

It appears that, if I buy a classic car, for say 5k, but the cars original list price was only 1k, I can buy the car with 4k of company money and 1k of my own.

The value of the car for tax purposes is then

(List price of car - any capital contributions from employee) * % rate based on engine size

which would be (1000-1000) * 40%

or zero.

Therefore I could run the car through the company, pay for insurance, mechanics, tires, oil , garage etc and not have any tax to pay.

This seems like a great way to extract money from the company.

Is this magic or missing something?

[nobody here but us chickens]

thats how I understand it

I did look into it about two years ago but then never went ahead because I dont have room to park something that isnt going to be useful - ie cart 2 kids / wife / 2 dogs around. but that sounds like what I understood the rules to be. I did speak to someone at the IR at the time and they said that was OK, but if I was going to do it I would try to get that on a formal basis.

Rover 2000 - To be honest I havent driven one - you do mean the P6 thing ? They just leave me cold.

I would just look at something a bit more interesting, Say a nice Alfa or Lancia - assuming theve lasted this long the bodywork must be OK, and they are very pretty + good to drive.