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Car Allowance

You generally get the choice of claiming the fixed 45p/25p or claiming actual costs using all receipts, bills, etc, so that's where you have to work out the percentage work use/mileage compared to private to justify what you are claiming.

yes , thats my understanding . and no you cannot claim your time as a landlord . for instance if you spend 3 days cleaning you cannot claim for your time . thats why its better to pay a cleaner and you can claim for that

What is it?

yes , found a vauxhall meriva in metallic , life model which is more highly specced than my outgoing top of the range meriva . it has everything you need , 6 speaker stereo , good visibilty , cruise control , air con 1.4 100 ps engine . in fact its a flipping bargain with 5 miles on clock for 9k new [pre reg ] . i know they are boring as heck but by jingo they are practical cars and incredibly reliable
 
I'm not sure that the company in your second para will usually get 100% first year write off but that's a minor detail.
I'm sure they wouldn't, however over 3 years, buying at £100k, selling at £50k, they could claim back that amount plus whatever other receipted costs and I'm fag-packet estimating that at £25k a year across the 3 years, for the sake of argument.

When taxation was based on original list price there were a few bright sparks who bought £20k E-types and DB5s and the like, ran them as company cars doing 5k miles a year, ran any repair bills through the books and paid tax on the £800 that the cars would have cost new in 1966. HMRC said "Foxtrot Oscar to that" and closed the loophole very quickly. It's now list price or current value, whichever is the greater. Bastards, they won't let me get away with anything. Actually, tell a lie, they let me put a sh*tpile of money into a pension, tax free, but we all know why. Last thing anyone wants is me getting to 70 and saying "well boys, it's all gone. I p*ssed it up royally, I won't mention the few bob overseas that you can't touch, so, well, given that I can't work any more I need a flat, paid for by the state out of my taxes. Thanks lads." There's a reason why pension contributions are tax free.
 
OK so I am not a great negotiator, so its gonna be an allowance. However I have a few quid to spend so wondered what people would consider in the 10k region?

There is no real requirement from the company only that its reliable and smart. However if it helps, as a family we do a bit of camping and I have really enjoyed BMW5 tourer and this volvo V90 has been a delight, although of course well out of my price range.

I am not being a snob here but I really just don't like Fords and Vauxhalls. Yes I am sure they do some great cars, indeed we have had fords in the household since I was able to drive. Interior is far more important to me than outside looks. I have to consider tax and insurance now too.


So any thoughts?
 
You like the BMW and Volvo, you have 10k. So buy a used one of them. Someone else has taken the depreciation hit, spend the allowance on insurance, maintenance and have done. A clean used example isn't going to upset anyone, it's respectable and it won't be seen as too flashy.

You may want to check out leases, some are very attractive. Lease cars don't have to be new, I've seen 2 year old 520s on lease as £300 pcm. This is probably within you allowance.
 
if you go Volvo the model change over is relatively slow (apart from at the moment) so it is only the registration plate that would give the game away that you are using a previous decades model
 
Yeah. I hate choosing things so went to volvo in winchester today and picked up a V60 2013.

Job done!
 


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