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Sorry... budget.... 500 per month max.
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Sorry... budget.... 500 per month max.
Suggest you have a look at
www.cashorcar.com/
and click on the Cash Only button.
If you click on the figures it comes up with then it gives you the tax details etc.
I think Fuel card for your own car (with all fuel paid for) is pretty unusual these days. Your employer has to pay for the fuel and you have to pay tax so the same thing is being paid for twice. You have to do something like 15000 private miles before it's worthwhile (depends on cars C02 emmissions).
Don't forget your £500 is only £300 after tax. You don't say what your business/private mileage split is but if it's mostly business miles then that allowance (and fuel paid for) is close to outrageous (low) for the mileage you'll be doing. You should get some sort of mileage allowance too. OTOH if it's mainly private miles/commuting then it's money for old rope.
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If your company gives you a fuel card the Inland Revenue automatically assume you use the card for private mileage.
I used to use a company card for fuel but had to stop when this legislation came in - I now claim mileage allowance at 9p per mile (varies depending on engine size/private/company car).
Seat Leon comes in 130 and 150Tdi versions, handles reasonably well, looks good and will average at least 40mpg unless you're completely bonkers.
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Fuel card is a fixed benefit. Called the fuel benefit charge, variable by Co2 output of the car. Check out the inland revenue site for all details www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/cars/fuel_ben_charge_0304...m
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You have to do some huge private mileage (13k springs to mind, but obviously depends on car etc.) before it's worth taking free fuel from your employer.
My suggestion is not to borrow money for a car. Buy yourself a nice MB W123 with 100k for £1,000, and it'll do you 120k more quite happily in style.
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Three bits of advice to start you off.
1. Understand fully what is required of you in respect of the car by your employer, some have strict rules some have none.
2. Understand fully what your employer will give you and why, and the tax/ni implications. The IR's advice and leaflets are pretty good on this. (In virtually all cases it is cheaper to buy all your private fuel instead of paying the tax on free private fuel.)
3. Put the numbers through a 'cash or car calculator' there are several free ones on the internet that will help you decide what new cars you can afford.
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Mapmaker, I certainly wouldn't regard 13k private miles as "huge" or anything unusual - certainly many commuters do this and much more - I do 19k odd private miles including 13k commuting miles - my fuel card is "money for old rope".
hxj, Re point 2 - OP needs to do the numbers - mileage determines whether a card is valuable or a millstone.
Point 1 is a good one - some only enforce rules for sales folks who regularly visit customers
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I'm pleased for you but if you are fortunate to be a higher rate taxpayer and drive a car that returns 50 mpg, not unreasonable, and you get charged at 20%, again not unreasonable, then the break even point for you and your employer is about 22,000 private miles per annum.
The breakeven for a basic rate tax payer again doing 40 to the gallon being charged at 15% is about 8,000 miles
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Assuming that the average taxation on the BIK is equivalent to paying for fuel over 13k per annum (and it will vary from car to car as CO2 figures aren't precisely related to MPG, plus there's banding as well) then, at 35mpg or 10p per mile, you get an annual cost in fuel of £1,300.
Of course, if the employee were then given that £1,300 to pay for his own fuel, he would get £800ish after tax, as well as a reduction in the tax bill of £1,300, which would itself pay for the fuel.
The actual break even point for the employee is when the tax on salary is equivalent to £1,300 - and that would be at 32,500 miles per year. Up until then, simply from the employee's point of view, he's better off accepting the salary and the reduced tax bill.
This does of course assume that the employer is willing to pay the cash over to the employee, and of course they may not be willing to if it would involve an across the board salary increase, but if the above numbers are fairly typical then there is no reason for them not to.
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I know a guy who is selling two very cheap ;)
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Depending on the exact budgetary requirements, I would consider the Golf GT TDi that was on here a few weeks ago. Others to look at would be the A3 TDi 140 Sport (£18k), the Audi TT 150 bhp roadster (£20,600) and er... that's it really.
Not much point in going second hand for these as prices are high and availability low.
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It used to be the case that if you bouhgt a car to use on business, you could get tax relief on the loan that you took out to buy it - this was certainly the case in the 1990's when I did it. I went the route of buying something a couple of years old that had taken the worst of depreciation. I chose a reasonably large car as I wanted to be comfortable when travelling long distances on business regularly. You must be prepared to change the car every few years and not get emotionally attached to it. Certain parts eg suspension bushes age and wear and it is better IMHO to change the car after a while and not keep it too long.
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Oh man, I wish my A3TDI Sport cost 18K. List is now 19.5K after a recent price rise but you should be able to negotiate at least 1K off. The problem is the massive extras list and temptation (and waiting for it once the order is in).
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I have exactly this problem too.
i have £20K in my account waiting to buy a car.
i have 14pence per mile for diesel.
i will do around 30K miles p.a.
all business miles.
Inland revenue, say i can claim 10K miles at 40pence per mile for first 10K miles then 25pence per mile for rest.
the difference between what i get from my company and these above figures i can claim back.
but what car ?
i fancy a 4X4. been driving the wifes rav4 (nice high up, does 44mpg on mway) also the wifes puma( fast as hell, really good fun, but mpg is pants, i havent a clue to mpg, i just keep filling it up!) want large family car, 4X4 aircon, climate control, diesel, auto or man, leather, heated, cruise, must do >35mpg.
i think this is how to work out fuel mpg(please tell me if i have done this right or wrong.)(at .77p per litre = 4.5l per gallon. = £3.46 per gallon.)
i have done it on 3 different mpg's.
at 30 mpg = you use 33.3 gallon@3.46=£115.38
at 35 mpg = you use 28.5 gallon@3.46=£98
at 40 mpg = you use 25 gallon@£3.46 =£86.5
times 4000 miles which i do a month.
40mpg=£346
35mpg=£392
30mpg=£461.52
if i get .14pence per mile (4000miles@.14=£560 a month for fuel)
so if i get
30mpg, i get £100 in my back pocket
35mpg i get £168
40mpg i get £214
50mpg =£280 a month ! extra.
i guess i want a 4X4 that does 50mpg on motorway with large body, have got roof box , so boot not really a major factor, cruise, climate, leather, really comfy, safe, abs, and only around £20'000. any ideas any one?
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Sorry Grant, I don't think it can be done. Realistically, a five door RAV4 is as close as you're going to get. I think 44mpg on the motorway for a large and heavy vehicle is excellent, and a £20k 4×4 will either be a Kia (much thirstier) or RAV sized.
Your MPG figures make sense to me though. A roof box will screw up the aerodynamics even more, of course.
If you do need that kind of economy and a higher driving position, something like a Focus C-Max, Touran or (Grand) Scénic would meet the economy and space criteria, but not the macho image at all.
On the tax figures, 4k miles per month is of course 48k pa - 30k is only 2,500 per month. That means you can claim back 26 p × 10k = £2,600 plus 11 p × 20,000 = £2,200 - effectively increasing your personal allowance by £4,800 - 40% of this is then paid back to you in reduced tax, £1,920. You also get £4,200 from your employer to cover your fuel costs of £2,400 (at 44mpg) meaning you have £3,720, or roughly £300 per month to finance the vehicle with (plus any of your normal income you want to bring to the table).
This means you can effectively (apart from insurance and maintenace, anyway) fund about £15k for the car, which leads me to think of a C-Max 2.0 Zetec TDci, but could take you in an entirely different direction.
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