About DB's Company Car?

[whereiscaroline]

I know this is a small problem in the grand scheme of things but would be grateful for views from a neutral standpoint.

DB has a company car with a fuel card. Pays a hefty amount of tax for the privilege, and personal mileage is included in permitted use for both the car and fuel. I'm named on the insurance and provide my driving licence documents to his work every 3 months.

DB barely uses the car, he gets the train to work each day, which his employer pays for.

I have been looking at a job which is a 100 miles round trip from home. Pricing it up, trains will cost me £400 per month.

I suggested to DB that I use his company car for commuting each day, and he carries on getting the train as he has been doing for years. By doing this, we save £400 per month which would be a really helpful amount of money of course.

He has totally lost his rag at this suggestion. Apparently I'd be taking the mickey out of his company (it's a big PLC company, not a small family owned firm, if that makes a difference) by doing this. I do see his point, but my stance is that he is paying £4K a year in tax for private fuel usage, why shouldn't we make the most of that?!

AIBU?

I would use the company car. My DH would agree to it without blinking.

DH has a company car, he pays for fuel on his company credit card and then logs his personal mileage and pays back the cost of that petrol at the end of each month (works out cheaper to do it this way)
He drives his car to work and has a car because he often has to drive around the country at a moments notice and is on call every other week so needs to be available then too.
I'm insured to drive it and often drive it in the weekends/evenings locally and his work have no problem with that. He has no cap on his mileage and we could drive it on holiday to say France if we wanted to.

I don't get the personal mileage bit, DH had a fuel card and it had included personal mileage he paid masses in tax for the privilege, roughly 40 per week, he didn't do anywhere near that when his role changes so he gave the card back, we are better off paying for our own personal fuel. Why doesn't he give the car back and take the car allowance instead? Doesn't make any sense at all.

I have company car & fuel card - what you are proposing is totally reasonable! It's a perk of the job, they do not care what the mileage is or what the personal use level is. My husband uses my company car all the time ! I have also loaned it out to wider family members.

However i do agree that he should give up the car and take the cash allowance if his private mileage were to stay low!

I said above that DH needs to have his available for use during office hours. I forgot to say that that policy came into being because once someone needed to go somewhere urgently and every single car from directors downwards, weren't on site, but were being used by the other halves!!!

Check that the insurance covers partners for social, domestic and commuting - most will exclude the commuting part

Also if he rarely uses it, ask if his company is willing to give him a car allowance instead - it's taxed like salary via PAYE and might result in you being better off overall

I imagine he is being taxed on £4k benefit in kind, which means he's paying either £800 or £1600 in tax per year (depending on level if income) as even a top of the range 4x4 isn't £4k in tax!!

Anyway, that's beside the point... If you are named and allowed to use his company car then why on earth wouldn't you?! It is part of his renumeration and perfectly acceptable imo!

Check the insurance to ensure it covers additional drivers for commuting, if it is then I'd say they are expecting the car to be used in this way. Back in the day I had a company car with a fuel card (think the tax was only about being £100 per month so shows how long ago that was!). DH did commute in it sometimes, company had no problem, can't remember how many miles he did. If he wants to be really sure get him to ask his fleet manager.

And then with your car allowance you can take out a PCP - personal contract purchase, which is a personal leasing of a car, arranged through garages, which you would be able to use too.

PCP can be expensive if high mileage is done - if OP is doing 500 miles a week that will be very expensive.

Company car as a perk of the job, included in remuneration package - perfectly reasonable to do what the OP is suggesting, as long as her DB is also open to the idea and insurance covers her. In this case, the car is part of the "package" like holiday or health care.

Company car as a tool for the job (this is what I have) - completely not on. I probably need my cat for work at least 3 days a week plus on call, and it needs to be available for other people when I am not using it during work hours. DH - in fact anyone with a full driving licence - can drive it for "domestic and pleasure" with my permission. Only me or other employees can use it for commuting or business purposes. In this case the car is essential to do the job, like safety boots or a stethoscope.

My DH would agree to it without blinking.

OPs bf company however may very well not.

This wouldn't be allowed on DH company car.

Piglet, obviously the insurance would have to be checked out.

Some firms lease the cars, and anyone can drive them. I know someone whose 17 year old son can drive his company Merc. Incredible, but true.

I don't even have to give my DH's company my licence details to drive his car.

I would check to see if the policy covers you for commuting/business use, just in case you get into an accident!

Also try to get rid of the fuel card and expense his miles on his company credit card, I expense my miles on my works card and make up the rest with my own money.

My company leases the cars and I can have one other driver on my insurance and they rarely check the miles.

Well start off saying he needs to use his car to get to the station from now on, not yours

Yes, my Dad's company car was anyone was insured as long as they had his permission, so I drove it at 17. Got stopped by the police a few times, just because they didn't expect to see a young person in that car.

Yes I could do this with my company car and DH could use it for commuting if he wanted if I were to take the train

It is very unlikely that a large PLC will own their vehicles therefore they will be leased and if that is the case, there will be a limit on the annual mileage. Given he is a low mileage user it is unlikely that this will allow 2k miles a month / 24k per year just for your mileage. Lease companies charge a lot for excess mileage so his company is likely to take a dim view of having to pay such charges - he may even have to repay this himself.

If he wants to keep the company car he should hand his fuel card back so he is only being taxed on the car benefit. He can then claim genuine business mileage back from his company (or HMRC if necessary). I say this as a Chartered Accountant and previous Finance Manager of a leasing company.

Yes the vehicles are leased and they can do up to 30k miles per year without going into the "pay per mile" zone.

30k miles pa is ridiculously high for a low mileage employee; assuming he is one of hundreds if not thousands of similar employees they seriously need a new fleet manager! In that case the best thing for him to do would be to speak to his line manager or fleet manager first, if they don't have a problem with it then go ahead but if they advise against it then don't do it. Misuse of a company car is often a sackable offence so I wouldn't risk it.

Why on earth does he drive your car to the station?

If I was paying 4K in tax for a company car, I'd want to use it as much as possible, otherwise, why have it? 4K would buy a runaround and pay for tax etc.

And OP is insured to drive the car - I don't see why people are pearl-clutching so much. A company car ain't just for getting to work; it's for all other driving too.

He drives my car to the station because the station is only around 6 miles from home and I normally do more miles than that running around doing errands during the day. Makes more sense to put those extra miles on his company car with 30k allowance than on my car which is a PCP with only 12k mileage per annum.

My husband has a company car and at the moment I do not work (no real plans to go back, as caring for parent and grandchildren). I use the company car most days for leisure purposes (he works in London 3 days and from home 2 days)
I am not insured by his firm to drive for anything other than personal/leisure purposes I would not be allowed to use it to commute to my place of employment.

The regulations would need to be checked, but I would say that would be a standard clause.