Tax free bicycles



M

Mark

Guest
Hi,

Does anyone here have any experience as an _employer_ of any of the
tax free cycle schemes (or has done it all themselves)?

(I have been trying to pursuade my employer for about 18 months to let
me buy a bike this way and they are not keen because they think it is
too much admin work. I don't accept their reason but I'm not sure
what else I can do.)

TIA, Mark.
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Mark wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Does anyone here have any experience as an _employer_ of any of the
> tax free cycle schemes (or has done it all themselves)?


There are two parts to the scheme:

a) buying the bike - trivially easy. Essentially company can write cheque
and let you use the bicycle. There is no more paperwork than any other
company purchase to be shown on the accounts. Most tiny companies do it
this way.

b) salary sacrifice - optional and more complicated. This can be done in
house, and for a small company its easy to arrange if both parties are
friendly. The more formal arrangements tend to be done through an
out-sourcing company who administer the entire scheme. The outsourcer
generally make their money by means of rake-back on the sale of the
bicycles.



> (I have been trying to pursuade my employer for about 18 months to let
> me buy a bike this way and they are not keen because they think it is
> too much admin work. I don't accept their reason but I'm not sure
> what else I can do.)


Not much, other than badger senior staff and point out that its a stupidly
simple way of getting a tax break. The employer doesn't save a lot of
money, just a little bit of employer's NI.


- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/
 
On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:38:48 +0100, Mark
<[email protected]> said in
<[email protected]>:

>Does anyone here have any experience as an _employer_ of any of the
>tax free cycle schemes (or has done it all themselves)?


And there was I thinking this was the Daily Mail calling for a tax
on all those free bicycles...

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
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On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:27:44 +0100, "Nigel Cliffe" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Mark wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Does anyone here have any experience as an _employer_ of any of the
>> tax free cycle schemes (or has done it all themselves)?

>
>There are two parts to the scheme:
>
>a) buying the bike - trivially easy. Essentially company can write cheque
>and let you use the bicycle. There is no more paperwork than any other
>company purchase to be shown on the accounts. Most tiny companies do it
>this way.
>
>b) salary sacrifice - optional and more complicated. This can be done in
>house, and for a small company its easy to arrange if both parties are
>friendly. The more formal arrangements tend to be done through an
>out-sourcing company who administer the entire scheme. The outsourcer
>generally make their money by means of rake-back on the sale of the
>bicycles.


This has been one of the arguments against it. They don't want to set
up a salary sacrifice for a "trivial amount". Can the outsourcing
companies handle this?

Another reason cited is that they don't want the admin of buying an
asset.

>> (I have been trying to pursuade my employer for about 18 months to let
>> me buy a bike this way and they are not keen because they think it is
>> too much admin work. I don't accept their reason but I'm not sure
>> what else I can do.)

>
>Not much, other than badger senior staff and point out that its a stupidly
>simple way of getting a tax break. The employer doesn't save a lot of
>money, just a little bit of employer's NI.


I think they don't seem to understand the need for it. A bit of a
"let them eat cake" attitude I think.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Owing to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
See http://improve-usenet.org
 
On Wed, 18 Jun 2008, Mark <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:27:44 +0100, "Nigel Cliffe" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >Mark wrote:
> >>
> >> Does anyone here have any experience as an _employer_ of any of
> >> the tax free cycle schemes (or has done it all themselves)?


Yes, but not directly - there's an accounts department that does the
money stuff.

> >There are two parts to the scheme:
> >
> >a) buying the bike - trivially easy. Essentially company can write
> >cheque and let you use the bicycle. There is no more paperwork than
> >any other company purchase to be shown on the accounts. Most tiny
> >companies do it this way.


We generally use one of the company credit cards, as it happens -
employee identifies the bike they want to one of the directors, who
buys it on the company plastic.

> >b) salary sacrifice - optional and more complicated. This can be
> >done in house, and for a small company its easy to arrange if both
> >parties are friendly. The more formal arrangements tend to be done
> >through an out-sourcing company who administer the entire scheme.
> >The outsourcer generally make their money by means of rake-back on
> >the sale of the bicycles.

>
> This has been one of the arguments against it. They don't want to
> set up a salary sacrifice for a "trivial amount". Can the
> outsourcing companies handle this?


Yes, but you'll (probably) get a less good deal.

Don't they want to retain staff? I haven't actually spoken to our
accounts people, but they certainly don't seem to have had any
difficulty. Admittedly someone needs to make decisions about how the
sacrifice will work (for example, if the company pays into a pension
for you, based on a percentage of your salary, will that be based on
the pre-sacrifice or after sacrifice number?). If management don't
feel up to making decisions like that, I'm not sure it's likely to be
a flourishing company for long.

Do they offer any other salary sacrifice benefits (eg childcare
vouchers)? You could find out what else is available, and point out
that if they work out how to do salary sacrifice it could be applied
to more than just bikes, and might be a well-received staff benefit at
no cost and minimal time investment by the company.

> Another reason cited is that they don't want the admin of buying an
> asset.


Eh? What does this company do? Sit around (on the floor, obviously,
as don't want the aggro of buying chairs) talking about what they
could do if they got round to buying a desk, telephone or even a
computer?

regards, Ian SMith
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On 18 Jun, 15:29, "Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:38:48 +0100, Mark


>
> And there was I thinking this was the Daily Mail calling for a tax
> on all those free bicycles...


Damn right.. coming over here on their bikes, not damaging our
roads...