Hello All Buying a bike through my Ltd company and trying to find out the rules regarding paying tax and how to insure and register the bike etc I work across 3 locations and I'm buying a bike to save time travelling between these offices. In effect it will reduce my working day by 2 hours by not being stuck in traffic. I will occasionally use the bike for personal use (maybe a couple of times a month) I would expect Business miles 20k and personal miles 2k, so 10% personal use I've been reading through HMRC and the interweb but it's a minefield. As to what I can and can't claim in relation to the purchase and associated costs and what tax I would have to pay, re AIA and BIK I'm also VAT registered but probably won't claim the VAT on purchase as I would then have to sell it with VAT which would be a disadvantage. Can I do that? Has anyone done this and could give me a clue on the best way to proceed? Thanks
It's been a long time, but I used to be an IT contractor, running through a Ltd company. I bought a company bike and simply paid for everything personally and claimed it back from the company on expenses. VAT, where applicable, was reclaimed using the receipts I'd submitted.
It will be one of those questions that might "sail close to the wind" so I'd be surprised if you get many post in main, you might get some pm's though?
I just check with my accountant Each case is different and my business is associated with Ducati motorcycles and my 1098R advertises my business, so I don't really have personal use on runs out which promote my business. Ask your accountant If you effectively have a de-valuing motorcycle you have a diminishing vat burden so why not reclaim it?
Something like this may help. Seems to have changed massively since I last looked into it..... http://www.rousepartners.co.uk/tax-on-company-motorcycles/
The above link summary is a good guide (below). As a Director/employee you can claim the allowance against your business expenses. For mbikes it's £0.24 per mile with no mileage cap. So you'd be claiming £4.8k a year. Probably the best way to go? Or get a push bike and claim £0.20 per mile Assuming your base/home is your place of business and you're not "commuting" As a final point, it is also worth noting that it is generally more tax efficient for an employee to use a personal motorbike and claim back business mileage from the company at the HMRC approved rates, currently 24p per mile as this way there is no benefit in kind charge. However, this will not be appropriate if the motorbike is predominately used for commuting.
This biggest issue that I'm encountering is that hardly any insurers are interested in insuring it for business use. Bemoto said no, Ducati said no and a couple of others said bike would have to be registered as me but tax man won't like that either! I've found one company that would quote me but they wanted in excess of a grand for basic cover! Thinking I may just buy it myself and claim back my 24p per mile and then I don't have to concern myself with satisfying the tax man, greedy bugger that he is!
