Model 3 as a company car

[AngeB]

Hi , this is my first post here so sorry if its already been discussed.
i was wondering if anyone has already done this or had any thoughts on the following:
Do you charge the car at home and do how do you claim the cost back from your employer?
Does the employer cover the costs of the charger and any charge cards ?
i also read somewhere that you charge the employer for business miles at a rate of 4p per mile , do you think thats sufficient?
Many thanks and looking forward to your comments

 

[LukeUK]

I've had my model 3 Long Range as a company car for about 4 months now.

The biggest saving is the BIK. O% this year. 1% next year and 2% the year after.

I paid for my own charger install, using the OLEV grant.

I get 4p/mile, if you assume you're paying 16 p/kwh and 250 wh/mile then this would be cover it, in simple terms. In reality, charging efficiency has an impact on this, and hopefully you're not paying 16 p/kwh.

Supercharging at 24 or 25 p/kwh isn't covered by 4p/mile. Likewise, 3rd party CCS chargers are typically 25-35 p/kwh so need balancing out with a cheaper form of charging.

I've changed to octopus go which is 5p/kwh for 4 hours overnight, amd can often charge for free when travelling overnight, so far, I'm doing ok.

 

[Jason71]

You can claim a charger install as a business expense and you can still get the OLEV Grant. Whether your employer will pay is another matter.
BTW when calculating costs about 30% of the KWh used are lost in charging, preheating phantom drain etc and are not used to move the car so include that in your cost calculation

 

[AngeB]

Thanks for the replies guys, it seems like 4p is a bit tight , but workable im looking forward to getting it now !

 

[NewbieT]

All cars can claim 45p/mile as far as HMRC is concerned - for the first 10,000 miles a year. If your employer will only reimburse 4p you can claim tax relief on the remaining 41p.

 

[LukeUK]

Whether your employer will pay is another matter.

Yup, having just negotiated for the car, and knowing that the BIK saving would be almost 300 quid a month, I didn't push it, to be honest.

 

[LukeUK]

All cars can claim 45p/mile as far as HMRC is concerned - for the first 10,000 miles a year. If your employer will only reimburse 4p you can claim tax relief on the remaining 41p.

Not true, if it's a company car.

You're talking about claiming business use mileage when it's your own car.

 

[NewbieT]

Sorry, yes your right. It’s a small perk for those of us who get a car allowance rather than a BIK free car. Albeit this year I have driven <100 work miles.

 

[LongRanger]

Took the call to switch into EV as my first ever company car - have invested in home charging for EV I.e. setting it up for longer term EV capability, at least to persuade myself that the cost of wiring install outdoors, materials, charging unit points and hardware and electrician costs don’t all relate to 1 car.

It’s all a bit surreal as have gone from 30k miles per year (20k+ of them business miles) to about 3-4K max this year, now I have a company car I’m doing no company mileage lol

It was really the only way to go, the Tesla is more of a novelty thing for me as several other EV options would have been possible but I got a good monthly deal and thought I may as well have something interesting with max range at the time.

 

[Watts_Up]

Interesting UK taxes review, while I imagine the content of this video must be already well known from the readers of this thread.

How I Bought a Brand New Tesla Half Price
​

 

[LongRanger]

“In a way, it’s the same as ...”

No, not really. The clue is in 100-50. 50k is still missing from a bank account, so it wasn’t half price. Child maths !

 

[Jason71]

Interesting UK taxes review, while I imagine the content of this video must be already well known from the readers of this thread.

How I Bought a Brand New Tesla Half Price
​

He is right there is a huge saving by he has exaggerated it in some ways
his student lone argument is a delay rather than a saving. He still owes the money to the student loan corp and he also does not mention that if he sells the car then not only does the money go back to the company not to himself but he has to pay corporation tax on the value of the car at that point so his 10K saving on corporation tax is also only a partial delay not a total saving.
Also the 0% is only for one year. its 1% the year after and 2% after that and then ? its still a bit saving though

having said that as a company car he can then also expense everything else on it like charge point, accessories, maintenance, tyres etc. And the fuel is much cheaper.
I worked out I with my (pre Covid) mileage I could run an M3 for 3 years for about the same as my 15K used Skoda was costing me. So it was a bit of a no brainer.

 

[Jason71]

“In a way, it’s the same as ...”

No, not really. The clue is in 100-50. 50k is still missing from a bank account, so it wasn’t half price. Child maths !

Not entirely. If you start from the premise of I need a car and I am prepared to spend 50K.
I can either buy a 50K company car OR I can take money out of the company and buy a car as a personal purchase in which case I can buy a car that costs 24K and give 26K to the govt in tax and loan payments
The maths is even better for leasing since you can also claim half the VAT back if you lease as a company lease which you can't do with an outright purchase.

Well at least until IR35 catches up with him........

 

[tinker_xp]

I've just ordered a Tesla Model 3 as my next company cars after numerous Insignia's and Mondeo's. I had a range of options to me but the thought of having a 0% BIK out weighs any initial costs that I have to incur (installing my own charger point, etc)

It seems Luke our fleet policy are very similar if not identical even to the 4PPM.

 

[Jason71]

I've just ordered a Tesla Model 3 as my next company cars after numerous Insignia's and Mondeo's. I had a range of options to me but the thought of having a 0% BIK out weighs any initial costs that I have to incur (installing my own charger point, etc)

It seems Luke our fleet policy are very similar if not identical even to the 4PPM.

4p/m is the official Govt rate. The company could give you more but it would be classed as a BiK*
If you can charge at home on a cheap rate you are quids in since you will be looking at more like 2p/mile but if you have to public charge it is likely to be at least 8p per mile and is going to cost you. Even home charging on a standard rate will likely cost you more than 4p/mile

*Edit There are (legal) ways to avoid this.

 

[Arran]

He is right there is a huge saving by he has exaggerated it in some ways
his student lone argument is a delay rather than a saving. He still owes the money to the student loan corp and he also does not mention that if he sells the car then not only does the money go back to the company not to himself but he has to pay corporation tax on the value of the car at that point so his 10K saving on corporation tax is also only a partial delay not a total saving.
Also the 0% is only for one year. its 1% the year after and 2% after that and then ? its still a bit saving though

having said that as a company car he can then also expense everything else on it like charge point, accessories, maintenance, tyres etc. And the fuel is much cheaper.
I worked out I with my (pre Covid) mileage I could run an M3 for 3 years for about the same as my 15K used Skoda was costing me. So it was a bit of a no brainer.

Just to build on this. As a Sole company director, getting regular insurance for yourself on your Company Car, is this a company expense or personal?

 

[Jason71]

Just to build on this. As a Sole company director, getting regular insurance for yourself on your Company Car, is this a company expense or personal?

if the company owns the car then they should pay to insure it. After all if it gets written off they will get the money. You wouldn't pay for insurance on a company laptop would you?
I can't see why you could not buy either as company insurance or even private insurance claimed as a business expense it but I am not an expert.
As far as I am aware this is all part of what the BiK is supposed to cover, the fact that it is currently zero is neither here nor there

 

[OneTinyFish]

Really good video. He covers the basics well enough but he's missed out a few things.

+ Ltd can pay for insurance and all expenses, tyres, etc.
- Student Loan wtf? Deferring it will make it larger.

 

[ringi]

- Student Loan wtf? Deferring it will make it larger.

If the student load in not repaid within (I think) 30 years it is written off.

 

[Wuddie]

I've had my model 3 Long Range as a company car for about 4 months now.

The biggest saving is the BIK. O% this year. 1% next year and 2% the year after.

I paid for my own charger install, using the OLEV grant.

I get 4p/mile, if you assume you're paying 16 p/kwh and 250 wh/mile then this would be cover it, in simple terms. In reality, charging efficiency has an impact on this, and hopefully you're not paying 16 p/kwh.

Supercharging at 24 or 25 p/kwh isn't covered by 4p/mile. Likewise, 3rd party CCS chargers are typically 25-35 p/kwh so need balancing out with a cheaper form of charging.

I've changed to octopus go which is 5p/kwh for 4 hours overnight, amd can often charge for free when travelling overnight, so far, I'm doing ok.

Ive been following this thread and have had various company cars over the past few years..

my experience is..
You can take a company car from your employer and they can pay for all the fuel that is put in to the vehicle, then as long as the employee records and reports ALL private mileage the company then Charges you back at the Advisory fuel rate or above, this then allows you to avoid fuel benefit . this is an exert from the HMRC website..

Employees to repay the cost of fuel used for private travel
There will be no fuel benefit charge if you correctly record all private travel mileage and use the correct rate (or higher), to work out how much your employees must repay you for fuel used for private travel.