First: Can you use Cyclescheme vouchers at Chain Reaction?
Second: Can anyone convince me that a Giant Anthem X4 is a better buy than an Iron Horse Bootleg 3.0?
I thank you
Bike Forum
[closed]
Cycle Scheme question - well 2 of them really
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Posted 2 years ago #
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1. No - CRC only support their own Ride to Work scheme - not Cyclescheme.
2. Neither of your options sounds very good for cycling to work.Posted 2 years ago # -
You mean you have to cycle to work with the bike you get ?
Posted 2 years ago # -
No, driudh is a Scheme Nazi IIRC. Ask CRC directly, buy whichever bike you want more.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Getting a bike on "bike to work" and not using it as set out in the tax legislation is tax evasion, it's very simple.
You are knowingly claiming a tax benefit that you are not entitled to and is no different to under-declaring your income (eg cash in hand) or keeping money offshore.
EDIT - The tax exemption is in Finance Act 1990 s.50. The requirement for the employee to use the bike "mainly for qualifying journeys" (defined as home to work or from one workplace to another) is in the primary legislation rather than guidance. Taking the tax exemption but not using it is very obviously tax evasion - the law is clear and unambiguous.
Posted 2 years ago # -
You are knowingly claiming a tax benefit that you are not entitled to and is no different to under-declaring your income (eg cash in hand) or keeping money offshore.
Who gives a **** I'd love to be in the position of cash in hand. Surly thats part of the deal customer gets cheap plumbing or whatever, tradesman makes a bit extra income.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Who gives a ****
IIRC the scheme is under some scrutiny due to this kind of abuse. So, to answer your question...I give a ****. The more bad press or abuse the scheme gets, the more unlikely it is that other employers will have the opportunity to take it on, which means that people like me (who actually cycle to work) don't get to benefit from the scheme.
Posted 2 years ago # -
IIRC the scheme is under some scrutiny due to this kind of abuse. So, to answer your question...I give a ****. The more bad press or abuse the scheme gets, the more unlikely it is that other employers will have the opportunity to take it on, which means that people like me (who actually cycle to work) don't get to benefit from the scheme.
+1
Well said that man!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I concur...
Gents, how can you find out which online retailers take cyclescheme vouchers? Cheers muchly.
Posted 2 years ago # -
like heck they'll pull the scheme, besides is there alt wrong with buying a mtb if you already paid full wack for a commuter. I have to pay for all my bike stuff.
Posted 2 years ago # -
tails - the government pulled a similar PC scheme where you could pay for a PC by sacrifice of pre-tax salary because it was being abused. Subsidised canteens and untaxed lunch allowances may well go the same way.
Your argument that you paid full whack for something so you are entitled to steal from the Treasury to get something else seems a bit ill-concieved, don't you think?
Is not taxing your car, or benefit fraud, or nicking things from government buildings OK in your book as well?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Gents, how can you find out which online retailers take cyclescheme vouchers? Cheers muchly.
See this is a funny one.
In the absence of you signing the voucher in front of the retailer with photo id there is a fraud possibility. We only take them in store as per the recommendation of Cyclescheme.
The potential is there for someone to print off a few vouchers and punt them out to mail order companies. Might never happen but if it does you won't (as a retailer) have a leg to stand on.
MD
Posted 2 years ago # -
what makes you think they wont pull the scheme tails ? they did with the computer one didnt they ?
Posted 2 years ago # -
to get a Cyclescheme you need to nominate a shop/supplier as part of your voucher request.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Oh well that blows that one out of the water
If however you actually do ride a bike to work, does it have to always be the one you got on a Cycle2Work scheme?
Posted 2 years ago # -
If however you actually do ride a bike to work, does it have to always be the one you got on a Cycle2Work scheme?
No.
Most of the trips you do on your bike to work bike have to be to/from/for work.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Barry Bethel - Member
IIRC the scheme is under some scrutiny due to this kind of abuse. So, to answer your question...I give a ****. The more bad press or abuse the scheme gets, the more unlikely it is that other employers will have the opportunity to take it on, which means that people like me (who actually cycle to work) don't get to benefit from the scheme.
If you already have a bike suited to riding to work why would you need another?
Posted 2 years ago # -
One for nicer days maybe?
Or one for when you take a longer route and need more gears?
Or one for the hell of it
Posted 2 years ago # -
If you already have a bike suited to riding to work why would you need another?
He's probably thinking of getting one with a 'working' headset
Posted 2 years ago # -
Just perhaps the "defrauding the treasury" lobby are taking a little too narrow a view of this.
Knowing many of the people that are lobbying for benefits to promote modal change they would not really care about the few that don't buy and use the bikes in the spirit the benefit is provided.
The wider socio economic benefits outweigh the possibility of a few cyclists taking the pee. More bikes and more visibility of it as a healthy and acceptable way of traveling whether commuting or leisure is a good thing and the cost/benefit to public expenditure (or loss of tax revenue) is a very hard thing to pin down with any accuracy.
Personally I'd be happy that a bit more of the general tax pot goes on promotion of cycling than into paying for inflated surgeon salaries to treat the ever increasing number of obese car drivers that wouldn't exercise if it was to save their life.
I have a load of bikes and have a bike to work scheme but have not taken it up. I have some colleagues who have bought bikes on the scheme and use their bikes in teh spirit of the benefit and those that don't. I don't begrudge any of them because collectively they are reducing the number of journeys made by car.
Posted 2 years ago # -
cynic-al - Member
If you already have a bike suited to riding to work why would you need another?
'cos as Haze alluded to up there, my commuter is shagged. And bent. It has the turning circle of a barge, and a brake that sometimes works.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Tasso - Member
The wider socio economic benefits outweigh the possibility of a few cyclists taking the pee. More bikes and more visibility of it as a healthy and acceptable way of traveling whether commuting or leisure is a good thing and the cost/benefit to public expenditure (or loss of tax revenue) is a very hard thing to pin down with any accuracy.
At least one local, public sector employer has statistics showing that the biggest contributor to long-term sickness is folk damaging themselves at Glentress and Innerleithen.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Don't forget short-term benefit to the economy too. I've just dropped £1000 pre-tax that I wouldn't have let out of my hands, just because I think I'm getting a bargain. That's £1000 direct into the local economy.
Ok, some will argue it's £400 out of the Treasury to pay for lazy baskets to sit about on benefits, but actually I feel happier about the way it's worked for me.
And before you ask, I do use my new Sunday to cycle to work, I have to go down a very steep hill to get there.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Get whatever you want, use it for work, or not - you don't have to keep a record of use and neither does your employer so no records to prove otherwise. The reason of clamping down is people abusing the scheme by getting frames, fancy wheelsets and snowboards on it
Posted 2 years ago # -
I was told by people in the know that HMRC don't like the exemption because when they introduced it they hoped some employers would buy bikes and make them available to employees for nothing/low cost to improve green credentials. I cannot think of anybody that has done that. I would not be surprised if it got chopped in the 24 March Budget.
Posted 2 years ago # -
How were people abusing the computer scheme out of interest?
Posted 2 years ago # -
They were buying a pc to work from home, but spending more time looking at porn
Posted 2 years ago # -
a bit like they were doin with bikes . Buying cheap and flogging not so cheap. After bothering my work for years we got the scheme last year problem is we have around 2500 people and they allow 15 a year to buy a bike
Posted 2 years ago # -
Underhill - Member
They were buying a pc to work from home, but spending more time looking at pornThe computer scheme was NOT about working at home, it was designed to raise the general level of computer literacy in the UK.
Posted 2 years ago #
Topic Closed
This topic has been closed to new replies.
