Company Fuel Cards

[BaldGuy]

Question....... I know this is rare to get given a company all paid fuel card these days.. but does anyone know the tax implications??

Running my own car with car allowance and fully paid fuel card (if i take it)

Cheers

 

[Sp!ke]

Since I am in the same boat as you , I can tell you that the fuel you spend is is taxable as income @ 40% at source. It'll show on your payslip as a benefit one month in arrears. (effectively you get a 60% discount on all the fuel you buy)

If you do business mileage, you can claim some or all of this tax back as expenses.

If you go the company car route rather than taking the money for a car, its a very different story. Althought the company car route only starts making sense if you do over 18k miles a year or something. (not got figures to hand)

 

[A-AvantGarde]

I used to have this with my old company prior to changing jobs but only with a company car not my own vehicle.

As Spike posted you get taxed on it (potentially pretty heavily) as since 2003 it's become based upon vehicle emissions.

To calculate the benefit charge on free fuel, the C02 percentage figure for your car should be multiplied against a set figure for the year. For 2008/9 this figure is £16,900.

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/companycartax/privfuel_charge.html?page=home

This applies to company car users. Having re-read your post I'm not sure how it would apply on your own car. I think as Spike has said you'll get taxed on the value of the benefit (i.e. how much fuel you purchase) so it would appear that you get a discount on all the fuel you purchase. Great position to be in with a privately owned car - bring on the 55 AMG

 

[Sp!ke]

The fuel tax is not taxed on emissions at all. In fact the HMRC don't even know what I drive.

Emissions do come into the equation when you use a company car but not if you use your own.

 

[HowardD]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/ebik/ebik2/car-fuel-02.htm

This might help. Or not.

 

[A-AvantGarde]

The fuel tax is not taxed on emissions at all. In fact the HMRC don't even know what I drive.

Emissions do come into the equation when you use a company car but not if you use your own.

Nice perk Had it with a company car and doing 20k private miles per year it definitely appeared to pay for itself! Your arrangment seems much more attractive, you get to drive what you want too...

 

[Sp!ke]

Yep, I even had my limo down for use with the company fuel card. (I needed it too )


Rumour has it that the bean counters have recently been looking rather closely at this perk however.