Purchasing a car through a newly registered LLC

[dentract]

I'm about to register an LLC for my work, and I was wondering if it's possible to purchase a new (or used if possible) car through the LLC.
My personal credit history is bad, but income is not low. What are the chances of purchasing a car through the LLC and what are the tax implications?

I'd really like to replace my 14 year old car

[hobnob]

Welcome to the forum

First up, I suggest doing a search, so that you can read up on previous discussions. The best way to do that is to go to Google, then search for:
"company car" site:forums.contractoruk.com
(That works better than the built-in search method, and you can substitute other phrases.)

Looking at one of your questions in particular:

Q: Can I purchase a car through the company?
A: If you're paying for it upfront, no problem. If you want to get a loan for a newly formed company, I think that's unlikely.

More generally, you need to think about who owns the car, and who will be using it (i.e. you or the company).
* If you own it, and it's used for company journeys, you can claim expenses for mileage. (But make sure your insurance policy covers that.)
* If you own it, and it's used for personal journeys, you pay all the costs.
* If the company owns it, and it's used for company journeys, the company pays all the costs.
* If the company owns it, and it's used for personal journeys, there will be a Benefit in Kind. NB This is based on the original purchase price of the car, so you could get a high tax bill for personal use.

My advice is to pay for the car yourself (when you can afford it), then claim expenses where applicable. If you're having trouble with your credit rating, there are 3 companies that will give you free reports (Experian, Credit Karma, and Clearscore) so look at them and see what you can change.

[dentract]

Thank you, hobnob.
That was helpful.

[northernladuk]

Why are you setting up an LLC?

Hobnobs advice is for a LTD because there are certain tax advantages. I know nothing about an LLC so you need to check that expenses and cars are treated the same way. All the advice on here is for LTD only. You can't buy a car with a company that has no money so I assume you are talking about using the LLC to finance a car which is awhole different set of answers to buying one (assumed to be with spare cash) so need to be clear on exactly what you are planning on doing.

I assume an LLC needs an accountant so the quick answer is speak to your accountant.

[hobnob]

As I understand it, LLC = Limited Liability Company.

I'm assuming that dentract meant a UK limited company, but NLUK is correct: if they're setting up an LLC (registered in the US) then things get a lot more complicated!