Company car fuel

[AndrewC]

Evening All.

A conundrum for you all.

I have my T5 recharge as a company car. I love it, nice to drive, clever features, looks good.

My deal with fuel previously on diesel was the company puts all the fuel in and I pay back private miles at the HMRC rate.

This is unchanged with the XC40 apart from of course I am charging at home at my expense?

The HMRC, according to our accountant still say that I should pay the same for private miles 11/12ppm.

So it’s petty but I’m paying for some of the fuel/electric but still paying the company for private miles?

My company aren’t trying to be clever, I’m the first one to go electric so we are feeling our way a bit?

Anyone else in this situation?

A

[Felindre]

Not in your situation at all, and it's been several decades since I drove a company car. However in my case we paid all the fuel, and claimed back business mileage from the company. Seem to me this model would work better for you as you'd be claiming the mileage be it on electric or petrol.

[blastpipe]

Is your company providing at charging point at work??....thankfully though electricity isn't, or wasn't last time I checked, regarded as a fuel. If they are don't charge your car at home but at work.

I agree with Felindre you paying for fuel and claiming back for official mileage might work better.

[m@rk]

So I'm assuming here by your comments (and do correct me if I am wrong) that your company isn't that large. I say that because of the way you say you claim and that you are the first owner of a PHEV vehicle which to be fair have been littering some company car parks for almost two years now

Now I too have a T5 Recharge like you but work for a large company and am given a fuel card. Each month I have to submit a report (via a web portal). The total spend is divided by miles to give a real cost per mile and then that cost per mile is applied to my personal usage and I have to pay that back to the company via payroll. So if my cost per mile for the month is 16p and I do 1000 miles of which 100 is personal, I have to pay back 100 x 16p

Via that process is the option to declare non fuel card spend. This was really designed for when you are abroad and can't use the fuel card but it also means I can put in the amount spent on electricity. My home charger will tell me how much power I have used so the amount I enter is kWh times pence per kWh so if I use 100kWh at home charging, my unit rate is 14.58p so I add in £14.58

This amount is then added to the fuel card spent which then means the total cost per mile for the month is different. We then do the above split between personal and business miles and it all works out OK.

But back to the size of your company.

Assuming most of what I just said is not something you are doing now, then perhaps it is time to speak to your company fleet department (person) and discuss. As others have said, electricity is not "fuel" from a tax perspective so companies can't do what they have always done and I have seen many variations on how to claim. On top of this, most people on these forums either don't have an expensed company car in the true sense of the word or think that the way mileage is claimed on private cars (the good old 45p per mile) somehow applies. It doesn't

And then finally there is the arbitrary rate of 4p per mile that HMRC have "suggested" for pure electric cars. Watch the comments for somebody telling me I'm wrong and that it's 45p per mile

So speak to your fleet department now. If you are the first they need your help as it's all new to them to. They aren't trying to rip you off but unless the person who runs the department or function has an electric car themselves, they probably don't get the issues you are facing and are thinking that all is well because after all, they are paying for your fuel.

I hope some of this helps.

[Felindre]

M@rk, that's a really good write up. Makes a lot of sense.

[Deleted User 2507]

Very odd situation, I am also a company car driver and pay for all the fuel myself and then just claim back the business miles I do at the current HMRC rate which is like you say 11p.

So the more electric I do the more in my favour it is, as I'm still getting 11p for it, electric or petrol.

Is there no way you can switch to this option? I gave my fuel card back years ago because I never do enough private miles to make it work.

[AndrewC]

Thanks for the reply’s on this, sorry it’s been a while to reply.

I am now using the vehicle App to download data monthly. Deducting re-gen power and any charges at work and billing the company for all remaining kWh.

A little crude but it’s a start.

Swapping to putting the fuel in myself would be a simpler way I’m just loathed to have the monthly out lay myself.

So again thanks.