GSi

I think this might have been covered on here before and I'm sure a few people run their own cars for work purposes... so hopefully this will be straightforward!

I was under the false impression that a fuel card (for business and personal use) was taxable at ~

dreamer

I *think* (after many long discussions and arguments with the IR) that the fuel benefit ona private car works like this (my employer reimburse all my mileage, so it's like a fuel card but without the actual card):

Let's say your fuel bill for 2007 was

GSi

Thanks Jo, I've done plenty of searching on the net now and haven't found any consistent advice either.

Looks like a no brainer then, I'll do a reasonable amount of business miles and a similar amount of personal miles, so should mean I'm tax free and probably quids in. Either way I can't be out of pocket as the most I'll have to pay is 40% of my fuel.

lordjimimac

do a self assesment and put in the miles*40p figure in box 1.32 of the supplimentary "Employment" form, page "E2"

If you work out that you will end up with a significant bill, you then have the option of either paying it in one go when your tax return comes through, or correcting your PAYE code to pay as you go

Revenue are totally TOTALLY clueless on this.

Cheers,
James

GSi

Thanks, looks like unless I do very few business miles I'll end up with a rebate rather than requiring to make a payment.

Great news. Either I can get a fuel hungry car (now I know how Jo can afford the STi) or I can get a diesel and save on some tax.

dreamer

The box number depends if you have the short return or the long one; I have the short one so that's what my numbers refer to. Haven't figured out how to do it in the online form yet unfortunately !

IR are a bunch of muppets; apparently they replaced a lot of their skilled people with empty desks and call centres who know absolutely nothing.

Gems so far are:
You can't claim tax relief for business miles
You're the only person whose employer pays for their private miles

Kiwi-S2000

Confused, someone want to do my tax return for car mileage??

GSi

If its your car and you don't get a fuel card and you don't get paid the government rates for mileage. 40p for first 10k and 25p after. Then you can claim back the tax on the difference between the company rate and the government rate.

So if you do 6,000 business miles a year, and your company pays you 18p per miles, you can claim back the tax on the cost of 22p x 6,000 miles at whatever your highest tax rate is. Just stick the delta in cost over the year, in the right box.