Pool car perk
Got a “pool vehicle”?
Well, it depends on how it’s being used.
I was chatting to a club last week about one of their new employees – a course manager.
He’d decided that the pool vehicle should live at his house during evenings and weekends but charitably agreed that when he was on holiday, he’d leave it at work.
Here’s the problem – through HMRC’s eyes, that transforms the “pool vehicle” into a company car, which the course manager will have to pay tax on, just as if he were the only one using it.
If pool vehicles are taken home and used for anything other than specific work travel, they immediately become a taxable benefit.
Sucks for the course manager, but rules are rules.
It didn’t end there either – the club also had a fuel card for the pool vehicle.
Nothing wrong with that, in theory, as long as it’s only being used during working hours.
Given the slightly opaque agreement that had been in place with the “pool” vehicle, we decided to scrap the fuel card and instead ask staff to claim back any business mileage at the standard 45p a mile.
As you might expect, the course manager wasn’t best pleased – he’d seen the pool vehicle as a perk.
But when “perks” can land you in trouble with the taxman, they cease to be perks – are there any “perks” at your company that’d fail to cut the mustard if HMRC came calling?
