I am the director of a limited company, my other half is the company secretary and the only other employee.
My working arrangements mean that I only know a week or two in advance what I will probably be doing, and where, or who for, so IR35 doesn't apply to me.
I've gone for the GX4H because most days I will do a 15 mile round trip to one customers office, or a 30 mile round trip to another.
with odd 80 or 90 mile round trips to visit various other regular customers, or some days when I stay home and do paperwork and the other half can use the car for shopping or a bootsale or taking the kiddies to school events or we all go for a family day out to visit the grandparents.
Once a month, I can get the odd surprise phone call, which can mean I have to get in the the car "now" and drive 150 miles to sort out a customer at the other end of the M4, or the other end of the M6, or the M20, then drive anther 150 home again.
Which was another reason for the PHEV and not a Leaf or any of the other battery only EVs (I can't afford a Tesla)
When I was an employee in corporate land, I didn't care how my cars were financed, but now it is "my" company, I just can't bring myself to pay a monthly rental for something that I've got to give back at the end and have nothing to show for it.
I've chosen to do a bit of a salary sacrifice, so my company has bought the car on the half down, other half over 12 months, interest free.
I will pay for the fuel personally, the company will not reclaim the VAT, and I will claim 14pence per mile for my business miles.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advisory-fuel-rates/advisory-fuel-rates-from-1-june-2015
So it looks like the company will not be paying any corporation tax next year. And the car will be paid for.
I paid the first £1,000 deposit to the dealer on my personal credit car, which I'm not going to claim back, so I can reduce the BIK a little more.
From the PCP figures I was quoted when shopping around, I'm thinking that I will buy the car from the company for around £12,000 in March 2017, just before the BIK goes up another couple of percent. Or perhaps the company might gift it to me, and I will pay some tax on the difference between the market price and the £1,000 deposit I personally paid to the dealer? (similar to what I did 16 years ago, with the previous company car)
Then it will be "my" car, not the companies, so I can go back to claiming 45p per mile. (or what ever the rate is at the time)
Which (as someone else said) I will probably do for 10 years or until the car stops working, or I retire, or some other nice model comes along, and the tax man makes it a good deal to replace it. Or perhaps I will make this the other half's car, and I get something newer? I will decide at the time.
I filled the petrol tank on the drive home from collecting the car from the dealer. In the 12 days since then I've done 350 miles, probably used £10 of electric (economy 7) and may be £2 or £3 of fuel, playing with the charge/save buttons and "testing" how quick I can join the motorway, and then how quiet it is on the motorway at ... "what speed did you say I was going officer?". Out of the 350 miles I've done so far, I will be claiming 250 business miles at 14pence = £35.
for the last few years, I've been paying £200 a month to the credit car I use for petrol, which isn't enough because I still owe nearly £1,000 on it
it's a bit early to tell, but it looks like I'm now going to be doing an extra £30 /month on the home electric bill,
and perhaps averaging one tank of petrol each month? but claiming back £100 to £150 a month from the company in business mileage.
For a "controlling director" (or what ever the HMRC term is) that can choose to shuffle the figures around to have a PHEV as a company car, I think it's a bit of a no-brainer! As long as your driving pattern / lifestyle suits the 30 mile EV range for most of your mileage.
if you are a sales rep, doing 20,000 a year up and down the motorway at 80 or 90mph, you probably want the diesel!
for me it ticks (nearly) all the boxes
as well as the face lift that is coming (next year?)
there will be the volvo xc90 hybrid, with a turbo and/or super charger, that will be similar-ish, but quicker, probably better build quality/nicer plastic, but around double the price, and will the £5,000 government grant have run out by then too?
