Is this morally wrong but legally allowed? Mat leave and employment Q

[elephantsbreafh]

Posting here for traffic.

I am due back to work end of May. SMP only, SMP payments end in March. I have accepted a new job which begins in April. I get a company car with my current role and not with my new job. Have ordered a car but it won’t be ready til May so there is a period where I will need to get to work but have no transport. Public transport not an option.

How do I stand legally/with HMRC if I were to hand my notice in snd officially leave my current role at the end of my maternity leave, ie end of May and start my new job beginning of April so I can still use company car? I know it’s morally dodgy but they’ve been such shits with me for my whole pregnancy and mat leave that I’m really only looking out for number one now. Any insight appreciated.

You can do it once your SMP payments stop. If they've been that bad to you then does it really matter whether it's morally okay?

What type of use are you insured for with company car? Sometimes it’s linked to base location or social travel but wouldn’t cover travel to another work place

I’d be cancelling the order and ordering a car that is ready in time for the new job.

Can’t really comment on HMRC as they are only interested that you pay the right tax,
but I think you would find your current employer’s insurance won’t cover you to drive to another/ second job, so you would be driving illegally, and if you get involved in an accident/ incident, you are screwed.

I very much doubt you'd be insured to drive to a new job on an old company car!

Is your company car allowed to be used for other purposes ?

Why on earth can't you get a car before May!

HMRC wouldn't care as one assumes the car is taxed as a Benefit in Kind anyway and would be calculated when you leave regardless of if you had another job anyway. You would lose more tax than normal from your new job for April as you would have no P45 to hand in and would have to state that this was your second job on the so you would not have any personal allowance on those earnings. This would change eventually when your P45 was issued from Job 1 and HMRC sent out a new tax code.

I'm assuming that the car is provided for personal and business use BTW. If its for business use only and you aren't paying tax on it the employer could choose to waive your notice and remove the car I believe.

You might be in breach of your terms of employment as well.

Get a £500 runaround to use and resell when your new car arrives.

Won't you need your p45 for your new job?

The car aside - which would be uninsured and driven against policy. Wouldn’t the new job be secondary employment and therefore you wouldn’t get any personal allowance?

Pretty sure you cannot, you need your p45 for your new employer, there's insurance issues too. If you really can't get a new car by April rent one for a month

Another person advising you to check the insurance. My previous role included a company car, and I’m sure there was a clause in the agreement about not being able to use it for driving to another job. It wasn’t something that I intended to do, so I didn’t pay it a lot of attention, but it sticks in my mind.

You most likely would not be insured, however check your contract.

If it were me I’d be speaking to the dealership where you are getting your car from and come to an arrangement about using one of their pool vehicles in the meantime.

Or changing your order to one of their ‘in stock’ new cars.

Could you lease one short term OP?

YABU to use the car for the new job. Why can't you get a car sooner? You could also hire one until the new car is available.

Op there is no reason you cannot get a car sooner. Why cause such a mess when it can be resolved so easily

Also double check your employment guidance around maternity leave payments and leaving. In the nhs you have to have 3 months between otherwise you are asked to pay a % back.
And no you cant use a car for one job for another. Wont your current company ask for it back?

I would imagine you would be in breach of your current employment contract and potentially your new one.

You can’t get a new car for over four months ? Did it not occur to you to order one you could gets sooner?

It’s not the tax that’s your main issue here as everyone is trying to tell you.

If you leave your current role at the end of May but start your new employment in April HMRC won’t care as you car will still be taxed as a benefit in kind. However, you won’t get a P45 until you leave your first job (so most likely until June).

What I would be more concerned about is does your existing employment contract prohibit you from having another job without permission whilst still employed with your current employer?

Agree that HMRC won't care - you don't need a P45 to start a new job and the car will be reported as a benefit in kind by the old employer so will be taxed accordingly. Sounds like you need to check the insurance/employment contract.

If the car is ordered as in not in stock then I can easily believe it will be May
I’ve ordered a new bmw x2 and can’t get it till April possibly May and that was ordering in Dec

Massive delays with new cars at the moment and the secondhand market is crazy overpriced. I’d be paying more for a secondhand one than a new one. I ordered beginning of December as that’s when I accepted the new job, had assumed that would be plenty of time and ordinarily it would be, but there’s a shortage of parts I believe.

Car is for business and personal use. I use it to travel to multiple locations for my work so don’t think it would only cover one base. But yes, good point about insurance. I was planning to rent a car in the short term, I just had this thought about handing my notice in later during the night feeds last night and wondered if it was an option but doesn’t look like it is. Thanks all!

@Bluntness100 the car market at the moment is crazy. Huge delays on new cars and as a result a massively inflated second hand car market. I am in similar position as the op. Losing company car and starting new job with no car. Some new cars we looked at had a lead time of 12 months!

And you simply can't get £500 run arounds any more.

I managed to get one delivered just in time, but we thought we would be carless for a while.

I'd just hire one. I had a similar gap between cars in October and hired a small citroen from rentacar for £16 a day.