Buying a motocycle/scooter through the company

**SteelyDan** · 11 January 2012, 18:25

Interesting...and I've been trying to find the stuff on low emission cars too; what you can buy, how much is deductable, etc etc, but couldn't find that one...any ideas?

Congrats on the award btw (he said bowing and scraping)

**northernladuk** · 11 January 2012, 18:28

I did cars not so long back. Let me see if I can find the the thread. It upshot is it is only worth doing with cars under 110 g emissions. You can find a list of them on the web. It is in the thread. Give me a sec.

EDIT : Here you go.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/accou...h-company.html

There was also a thread about it in general a couple of months ago.

Congrats on the award btw (he said bowing and scraping)

Thank you. Stick around long enough and you will be WTF like me and some other posers as well

**SteelyDan** · 11 January 2012, 18:32

Oh, maybe I read something somewhere else then which gave a breakdown based on emissions & what the business impact was. Thanks for helping out though.

Is that the trade off for the award then NLUK? You have to put in 13 hours a day here on CUK otherwise they take the gong away?

**northernladuk** · 11 January 2012, 18:45

Originally posted by SteelyDan View Post

Oh, maybe I read something somewhere else then which gave a breakdown based on emissions & what the business impact was. Thanks for helping out though.

Is that the trade off for the award then NLUK? You have to put in 13 hours a day here on CUK otherwise they take the gong away?

Is this what you mean?

Company Car Tax Band 2011/2012 | BIK Rate | CO2 emissions |Next Green Car

I put 13 hours a day in because I have no life, no friends and nothing better to do.....but thanks for pointing that out

**Wanderer** · 11 January 2012, 21:41

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Found an interesting news article about buying a motorbike through the company and being able to reclaim the full tax againt the company as it is not classed as plant. It does mention self-employed though...

Yes, it's been discussed here. Did you do a search?

Here's how it works:

1. You buy a motorbike which you will use wholly and exclusively for business.
2. Claim back the 20% VAT
3. Write off 100% of the cost of the motorbike against your company profits in the first year
4. Not sure if you can claim for protective gear but it's not hard to spend a grand on gear so it's worth checking if it's counted as "safety equipment".
5. The bike is still a company asset so when you sell it, you have to pay HMRC VAT on the sale price and the money from selling the asset goes into your company account as income. Of course, if the bike isn't in very good condition (damage/mileage etc) then your company might not get a very good price for it when it comes to sell. You might even buy it off the company at trade in value after a few years.

My calculations (probably completely wrong)

£12,000 bike

£2,000 VAT reclaimed
£2,000 CT avoided
You run it for 3 years and let's say the trade in value after that time is £6000 (INC VAT)
Pay £1,000 VAT on the sale to HMRC
Company takes £5,000 and pays £1,000 CT on that

Net saving over 3 years was £2,000 or 20% of the purchase cost.

If it's a company bike used only for business then you may be able to put all the running costs (insurance, tyres, servicing etc) through the company and there is a saving on that too.

Seems like it's worth doing IF you can justify it as a business use only vehicle and other use is merely incidental.

**Clare@InTouch** · 11 January 2012, 22:10

Don't forget the benefit in kind - 20% of market value. Nicely different to cars which are always based on list value :-)

**northernladuk** · 11 January 2012, 22:13

Originally posted by Wanderer View Post

Yes, it's been discussed here. Did you do a search?

Funneee

I did search but everything is from 2007 and the article mentioned something had changed to allow the offset of the full amount.

Saftey gear is allowed for bicycle.

Nice numbers. Will mull over those.

The obvious sticking point as always is the wholly exclusively for work. With bikes it is 50% of use is for work.

**Olly** · 11 January 2012, 23:47

oooooooooor...buy classic bikes as an investment, SORN them so there's no confusion about there business in kind benefit.

If you want to risk it once in a while and take one untaxed to the local classic bike run then that's not your Ltd's concern is it

**northernladuk** · 12 January 2012, 10:59

Originally posted by Clare@InTouch View Post

Don't forget the benefit in kind - 20% of market value. Nicely different to cars which are always based on list value :-)

Do bicycles incur BIK? Why would a motorbike be different to a pushiron?

Buying a motocycle/scooter through the company