Business Breakdown Cover

[Camnomis]

Just looking at the RAC website to get a quote as my AA has elapsed and noticed that have a "Business Club" which works our very good value compared to the normal RAC site, (£139.99 Customer v £142 business but that includes european cover too which is £104 extra for consumer)

Worse case I can put it through in MyCo's name but pay for it myself so it doesn't touch the company books, but it got my thinking could it be a legitimate expenses? If I can't get to work I can't get paid!

[Clare@InTouch]

No, you don't NEED to incur the cost in order to trade. You want to because you don't want to break down, but that's your personal choice.

If you claimed for everything that enabled you to get to work then you'd be claiming for absolutely everything. A good rule of thumb is to think about whether an old permie employer would have paid for something for you - if they'd laugh and refuse, then chances are you can't claim it through your own company either. The tax rules are the same, just because you own the company you work for it doesn't mean you can claim more.

[Camnomis]

No, you don't NEED to incur the cost in order to trade. You want to because you don't want to break down, but that's your personal choice.

If you claimed for everything that enabled you to get to work then you'd be claiming for absolutely everything. A good rule of thumb is to think about whether an old permie employer would have paid for something for you - if they'd laugh and refuse, then chances are you can't claim it through your own company either. The tax rules are the same, just because you own the company you work for it doesn't mean you can claim more.

Thanks

[northernladuk]

<yawn>

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=RA...ss&safe=active

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

We went over this a few months ago on here; in short, it might be possible for YourCo to buy breakdown cover and it be an allowable deduction for the purposes of corporation tax, as long as you can show its wholly and exclusively for business purposes. Buying it for a company car would probably be OK; simply providing it as a benefit to yourself as company director would probably be enough to make it allowable (as most employee remuneration and benefits are).

However the key thing is its likely to be a BIK which means declaring the value of the benefit and paying NI and possibly tax on the benefit. About the only time I could see this not being a benefit is if the cover is for a company fleet vehicle that an employee doesn't have available for personal use.

Finally, you couldn't pay for it personally and claim the cost from YourCo either as even if you passed the "wholly and exclusively" test (which is still unlikely), you'd also have to meet the "necessarily" test too which as Clare pointed out, you wouldn't.

[speling bee]

Just looking at the RAC website to get a quote as my AA has elapsed and noticed that have a "Business Club" which works our very good value compared to the normal RAC site, (£139.99 Customer v £142 business but that includes european cover too which is £104 extra for consumer)

Worse case I can put it through in MyCo's name but pay for it myself so it doesn't touch the company books, but it got my thinking could it be a legitimate expenses? If I can't get to work I can't get paid!

How much driving in continental Europe do you do on company business?

[TheFaQQer]

Given that you can get breakdown cover for £59 including European cover, why would you bother?

[northernladuk]

Given that you can get breakdown cover for £59 including European cover, why would you bother?

TF nailed it.