Van and Car Business use

[djw1981]

I know a of a few companies where they have 4x4 or MPV with the name all over it and use that when quoting for jobs / crew transport and small deliveries, leaving the vans for use the rest of the time. it is counts a s a company car for tax of course...

[paulears]

Tax wise, it isn't treated the same as a van - for both tax and VAT - with a 4x4, you can claim percentages not full cost. With a van, things are much simpler, the HMRC treat a van as something that has no windows or seats behind the driver - so a crew cab is not a van. a Landrover disco commercial has no seats or windows in the back and is in fact, a van.

[zonino]

Tax wise, it isn't treated the same as a van - for both tax and VAT - with a 4x4, you can claim percentages not full cost. With a van, things are much simpler, the HMRC treat a van as something that has no windows or seats behind the driver - so a crew cab is not a van. a Landrover disco commercial has no seats or windows in the back and is in fact, a van.

 

you most definitely can claim full costs IF it is only used for work purposes

[Peter Chivers]

you most definitely can claim full costs IF it is only used for work purposes

But in order to try to get that, you must be able to prove

1 that you have another vehicle used for private mileage and

2 that all the mileage done in the business vehicle is business mileage - and I believe home to permanent 'place of work/base station' does not count as business mileage ;)

Peter

[zonino]

re: 1 - you just have to prove that you don't use that vehicle for private use (you don't have to have a second vehicle)

[Peter Chivers]

re: 1 - you just have to prove that you don't use that vehicle for private use (you don't have to have a second vehicle)

Unfortuately several contractor friends of mine will disagree with you from being on the wrong end of the tax office. Guess who won ;)

Peter

[paulears]

Yep - I'd agree with that one. I'm being investigated 'at random' at the moment. The things being asked for are amazingly detailed. My accountant maintains that a van is an awful lot simpler as both tax and vat aspects are well documented and understood. The situation with a private vehicle is far more complicated. If it is taxed and insured as a good vehicle then the status is a little clearer, but the fact remains that in almost all circumstances it is impossible to convince the revenue that 100% business use is correct. Far too many questions. If the extra seats are never used, why are they there? Surely removing them would provide more space for business goods. Is there a full fuel log showing journey details, occupants and purpose of journey? Without such evidence, as has been said, you have little chance of convincing the revenue that your car is a 100% business expense. In truth, they will be right. One trip to Tesco means business use will be 99.9% - not 100 - giving the revenue the scope to reduce it further. A plumbers van, full of pipework, tools, and materials isn't likely to take the kids to Alton Towers, but a 4x4 could be. The revenue are staffed by normal people, and know all these things. You could attempt to prove it is a sole business tool, but is it worth it? When I used a vehicle for mainly business, my accountant simply claimed a proportion, that the revenue accepted - but on my van it s different. The added complication of splitting fuel into business and private adds another level of complication.

 

Zonino is correct that if you can prove no private use, then it's all business - but how would you do this?

 

VAT is clearer - plenty of guidance on this one.

 

One quick comment. Use my old car as an example. On my car registration document it did not say the registered keeper was East Anglian Radio Services, it said my name. So if you register the car privately, the Revenue could quite happily use this as an indication that it was registered private, taxed private, insured private - so is private.

[gareth]

This has been discussed in some depth before. Do a search on the Blue Room (and elsewhere) for "fixed profit car scheme".