Article in Guardian

Skunk said:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/tax/story/0,1456,1307166,00.html
Does anyone work for a company/organisation who takes advantage of

this

Quoted message said:

scheme? I am thinking of getting a(nother) new bike and a 50%

discount

Quoted message said:

would sway me - and my wife (who appears to think that having 3 bikes
already is enough for one person.) If anyone has any tips on how i

can

Quoted message said:

go about getting my company to get involved, it would really be
appreciated.

--
Skunk

Quoted message said:

From what I have heard your employer has to jump through hoops to do

their bit and those people who have tried to take advantage of it have
not been able to because their employer basically couldn't be arsed. It
is much more benefical to you than to the employer. So unless they care
about th'environment, your fitness etc the financial incentive to the
employer isn't really enough.

Skunk said:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/tax/story/0,1456,1307166,00.html
Does anyone work for a company/organisation who takes advantage of

this

Quoted message said:

scheme? I am thinking of getting a(nother) new bike and a 50%

discount

Quoted message said:

would sway me - and my wife (who appears to think that having 3 bikes
already is enough for one person.) If anyone has any tips on how i

can

Quoted message said:

go about getting my company to get involved, it would really be
appreciated.

--
Skunk

Forgot to say the C+ forum has a thread on this.

On 4/10/04 2:34 pm, in article
[email hidden], "MSeries"

Quoted message said:

Skunk said:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/tax/story/0,1456,1307166,00.html
Does anyone work for a company/organisation who takes advantage of

this

Quoted message said:

scheme? I am thinking of getting a(nother) new bike and a 50%

discount

Quoted message said:

would sway me - and my wife (who appears to think that having 3 bikes
already is enough for one person.) If anyone has any tips on how i

can

Quoted message said:

go about getting my company to get involved, it would really be
appreciated.

--
Skunk

Quoted message said:

From what I have heard your employer has to jump through hoops to do

their bit and those people who have tried to take advantage of it have
not been able to because their employer basically couldn't be arsed. It
is much more benefical to you than to the employer. So unless they care
about th'environment, your fitness etc the financial incentive to the
employer isn't really enough.

I have been trying to get the university interested (they are keen to
promote a green image) but so far all efforts appear to have sunk without
trace.

...d

Skunk said:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/tax/story/0,1456,1307166,00.html
Does anyone work for a company/organisation who takes advantage of this
scheme? I am thinking of getting a(nother) new bike and a 50% discount
would sway me - and my wife (who appears to think that having 3 bikes
already is enough for one person.) If anyone has any tips on how i can
go about getting my company to get involved, it would really be
appreciated.

Tried it this morning ..............

"Hi Boss, Will you buy me an new Bianchi SL3 Alu Ultegra so I can skim
through the town traffic and always be here on time, and you can take
the money out of my wages?"

"How much?"

"Only £1400.00"

"F... O.."

"Ok, thanks for listening anyway ......... Bye"

:-| :-|

Jack Ouzzi wrote:

Tried it this morning ..............

Quoted message said:

"Hi Boss, Will you buy me an new Bianchi SL3 Alu Ultegra so I can skim
through the town traffic and always be here on time, and you can take
the money out of my wages?"

"How much?"

"Only £1400.00"

"F... O.."

So he doesn't like Italian frames. Try him with a Chas Roberts tomorrow.

Zog The Undeniable said:

Jack Ouzzi wrote:

Tried it this morning ..............

Quoted message said:

"Hi Boss, Will you buy me an new Bianchi SL3 Alu Ultegra so I can skim
through the town traffic and always be here on time, and you can take
the money out of my wages?"

"How much?"

"Only £1400.00"

"F... O.."

So he doesn't like Italian frames. Try him with a Chas Roberts tomorrow.

Brilliant Zog ................... ;-)

Zog The Undeniable said:

Jack Ouzzi wrote:

Tried it this morning ..............

Quoted message said:

"Hi Boss, Will you buy me an new Bianchi SL3 Alu Ultegra so I can skim
through the town traffic and always be here on time, and you can take
the money out of my wages?"

"How much?"

"Only £1400.00"

"F... O.."

So he doesn't like Italian frames. Try him with a Chas Roberts tomorrow.

If you go through the BOOOST scheme (designed to help employers manage
the paperwork I believe www.booost.uk.com) then it seems you only
have the choice of Specialised, Giant, Trek, or Gary Fisher frames. I
find it rather ironic that there's not a UK/EU company in sight there!

What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to take
advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in their
paperwork.

Anybody know?

tom.

In article said:

Zog The Undeniable said:

So he doesn't like Italian frames. Try him with a Chas Roberts tomorrow.

If you go through the BOOOST scheme (designed to help employers manage
the paperwork I believe www.booost.uk.com) then it seems you only
have the choice of Specialised, Giant, Trek, or Gary Fisher frames.

http://www.booost.uk.com/employers/what/bike.php does have a logo linking
to ACT, the Association of Cycle Traders, which I was rather hoping would
allow a wider range. Or a lower more laid-back range....

in message <[email hidden]>, Tom Jackson

(') said:

What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to take
advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in their
paperwork.

No, you don't. We didn't.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; 99% of browsers can't run ActiveX controls. Unfortunately
;; 99% of users are using the 1% of browsers that can...
[seen on /. 08:04:02]

Tom Jackson said:

What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to take
advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in their
paperwork.

Half*rds also do a scheme, which gives you the choice of their own
Apollo (crapola) and Carrera (sometimes good) brands, plus presumably
Kona and whatever else they sell in their showrooms.

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to take
advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in their
paperwork.

No, you don't. We didn't.

If it's not too tedious, can you outline briefly what you had to do?
I've found all the documention I've been pointed at beyond my
comprehension, but this is a scheme that I - as a small employer - would
make use of.

Thanks,

Daniele
--
Apple Juice Ltd
Chapter Arts Centre
Market Road www.apple-juice.co.uk
Cardiff CF5 1QE 029 2019 0140

D.M. Procida said:

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to
take advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in
their paperwork.

They would - they're selling a product.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

No, you don't. We didn't.

If it's not too tedious, can you outline briefly what you had to do?
I've found all the documention I've been pointed at beyond my
comprehension, but this is a scheme that I - as a small employer -
would make use of.

I think it's all in IR176 - is that the one you found?

Basically you provide a bike, to be used for travel to work (I think Simon
pushed that definition a bit here). The tax break is such that even if it is
for exclusive use of the employee, it doesn't count as a taxable benefit.

So if you're feeling altruistic, the company can just buy a bike for your
use. If you're after one for yourself/partner this is obviously just what
you do. (and I suspect what Simon did).

When it comes to more normal employees, typically the company doesn't
actually want this scheme to cost them money - so they arrange some way of
getting the money back in the form of reduced salary.
The complicated thing is that the bike remains owned by the company, so
you're asking the employee to trust you not to take the bike away (I have
been in this position, and would trust that employer). If you have a
suitable relationship, this is fine. After a few years, or when the employee
leaves, they can buy the bike off the employer for a suitable second hand
value - if say 3 years have passed, this can be effectively zero.
(note if the employee leaves a couple of months after getting the bike, and
they want to keep title to it, they will have to pay a more suitable second
hand value. Again, if there is a suitable relationship, you'll probably get
away with postponing this for a couple of years, but take care).

What booost does is offer a third party leasing scheme to avoid all these
complications. They own the bike, not the employer or employee. They charge
a leasing fee to the company, who can reduce salary by an appropriate amount
if they want to compensate for this. At the end of the lease, the employee
buys the bike for the suitably small second-hand value.

So, if you're a suitably small, well off company, prepared to take the risk
of owning a few spare bikes if employees leave, the easiest thing is just to
buy the bike and reduce salary by an appropriate amount to pay it off. If
the employee leaves before three years, you'll want to agree a suitable
payment to buy the bike off you - and this will be out of taxed income, not
before tax. If they leave in a huff, you'll have a bike which you own, and
they may well have stolen off you - you'll need to be prepared to write this
loss off (assuming they're paying it off monthly).
The gain is that you reduce the salary before tax, which costs the employee
quite a lot less, and also claim the VAT back.

Hmm, much complicated rambling. IANAA, so as people would say in ukba, 'seek
professional advice'. (I haven't, and if the opportunity came would feel
confident in administering a simple scheme for myself. But that sort of talk
scares accountants).

cheers,
clive

in message
<[email hidden]>,

D.M. Procida (') said:

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to
take
advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in their
paperwork.

No, you don't. We didn't.

If it's not too tedious, can you outline briefly what you had to do?

Don't really know. We bought the bike on company plastic, and pushed the
paperwork at our accountant. He just processed it without fuss; didn't
say there was anything special about it, certainly didn't charge us any
extra for dealing with it. I don't think there was any special
paperwork, but I don't know; the inland revenue certainly passed it in
the corporation tax return without fuss. But then I think they
generally do provided you don't take the [censored] - and we don't.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

in message <[email hidden]>, Clive George

(') said:

D.M. Procida said:

Simon Brooke said:

> What's not clear to me is whether you HAVE to gothrough Booost to
> take advantage of the tax scheme. They seem to imply you do in
> their paperwork.

They would - they're selling a product.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

No, you don't. We didn't.

If it's not too tedious, can you outline briefly what you had to do?
I've found all the documention I've been pointed at beyond my
comprehension, but this is a scheme that I - as a small employer -
would make use of.

I think it's all in IR176 - is that the one you found?

Basically you provide a bike, to be used for travel to work (I think
Simon pushed that definition a bit here). The tax break is such that
even if it is for exclusive use of the employee, it doesn't count as a
taxable benefit.

So if you're feeling altruistic, the company can just buy a bike for
your use. If you're after one for yourself/partner this is obviously
just what you do. (and I suspect what Simon did).

Not for my use, no. As it happens I've bought myself two very expensive
bicycles since this scheme began, and each time I've forgotten to put
them through the company - sheer stupidity. The person the bike was for
does work for the company, and although the bike is perhaps not _the_
most suitable 'getting to work' transport, it does get used for that
purpose (among others), so I don't feel that we've abused the system
too much. Not that I think the Inland Revenue were thinking of
two-and-a-half thousand pound bicycles when they dreamed up the scheme!

It's actually a very tax efficient way of giving a very nice bonus to an
employee who is a cyclist, as you save both the VAT and the income tax.

Quoted message said:

When it comes to more normal employees, typically the company doesn't
actually want this scheme to cost them money - so they arrange some
way of getting the money back in the form of reduced salary.
The complicated thing is that the bike remains owned by the company,
so you're asking the employee to trust you not to take the bike away
(I have been in this position, and would trust that employer). If you
have a suitable relationship, this is fine. After a few years, or when
the employee leaves, they can buy the bike off the employer for a
suitable second hand value - if say 3 years have passed, this can be
effectively zero. (note if the employee leaves a couple of months
after getting the bike, and they want to keep title to it, they will
have to pay a more suitable second hand value. Again, if there is a
suitable relationship, you'll probably get away with postponing this
for a couple of years, but take care).

I'd suggest again that the simplest way for an employer to use this
scheme is in lieu of bonus rather than in lieu of regular salary. Much
more straightforward. And I think it's reasonable to write down the
value of a well-used bicycle to near zero over three years - that's the
write-down period for the rest of the company's hardware purchases.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

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