Pro's and Con's of getting a company vehicle

[ivorystraws]

I have recently started my own eCommerce site but the product I manufacture requires a Van/4x4 type vehicle to deliver the product and transport equipment.
I currently own a car for personal use and was thinkin of selling it in favor of buying a diesel 4x4 or a Van but would first like to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages to this. Please note, I am not a full-time employee of the company.

 

[RainyDay]

Hi IvoryStraws - Can you clarify a few things;

- Are you actually an employee of the company? Are you a director? [I'm struggling to understand how come you started the business, but you're not an employee]
- Are you suggesting that the company would purchase the vehicle, or that you would make the purchase personally?

The first big issue to think about is benefit-in-kind - Have a search on www.revenue.ie for rules relating to BIK for commercial vehicles.

 

[ivorystraws]

Hi RainyDay,

I am not an employee of the Company I created (i.e. I wrote the Memorandum and Articles of association and completed the A1 form signed by a commissioner for oaths) but I am a Director... this is totally valid as far as I am aware.
Yes, my company would be purchasing the vehicle and I would not be liable to BIK since it would be a commercial vehicle. I was thinking along the lines of purchasing a Crew Cab 4x4 type vehicle from one the car supermarkets in the UK since specific classes of that vehicle are only liable to €50 VRT (if it's under a specific weight and dimension limit).

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

 

[RainyDay]

I would not be liable to BIK since it would be a commercial vehicle.

That depends on the weight of the vehicle - from [broken link removed]

Where a company van is available for the private use of an employee, the employee is chargeable to PAYE and PRSI in respect of that private use. However, private use of a van's/commercial vehicle's with a gross vehicle weight (i.e. gross laden weight) in excess of 3,500kg will not give rise to a taxable benefit in kind.

 

[eamonn66]

3,500kg - that means bigger than a ford transit
€50 vrt- that loophole was removed for crewcab jeeps a couple of budgets ago at the time it was changed to 13.3 percent . im not sure if its still the same.

 

[sim]

Unless the regulations have changed recently you will get hit for BIK if its not classed a pool car/van ie it is not for your use exclusively and brought back to company premises everynight! I had one for 4 years and this was the way it was dealt with. Would have thought you would have to be an employee though.

 

[angie]

BIK on anything to be classed as a "van" is 5 % of OMV to cover private use, unless the employee is more than 90% of the time away from the office and does not use the vehicle for private use. If Vehicle doesn' t qualify as a van probably better to buy the car yourself and claim mileage at cival service rates from the company