Evening all, I’m a sole trader and wanting a new bike!
I know cycle to work isn’t available but I’ve been told I can buy the bike as a ‘capital allowance’ as I do use it for work
Then claim 20p per mile for non-normal commutes

But I can’t find anything on the wonderful hmrc website – any pointers anyone? Would be gratefully received

Kind regards
Ben

Just buy it and claim it as an expense,just like you would any other bit of equipment you might need for your work.

You can buy any asset but it must be “wholly and exclusively” for business purposes for it to qualify for capital allowances. Any portion not used for business i.e.commuting should be disallowed from the tax computation.

Mileage allowances are for private vehicles so you can’t put the bike through the business and claim for the miles too.

You can buy any asset but it must be “wholly and exclusively” for business purposes for it to qualify for capital allowances. Any portion not used for business i.e.commuting should be disallowed from the tax computation.

That’s the case for most equipment,but bikes loaned to employees are exempt under the cycle to work scheme. Have a look here

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycle-to-work-scheme-implementation-guidance

So just buy the bike, and claim it as an expense.

Edit: just realised you are a soke trader,not Ltd Co, so not technically an employee,so maybe you can’t benefit from the scheme,have a chat with your accountant

Excerpt from the hmrc guidance here
To help employees take advantage of this tax-free benefit, an employer can simply
buy a cycle and cyclists’ safety equipment and loan it to an employee for qualifying
journeys to work. This arrangement means that the employee’s normal salary
arrangements are not affected and is sometimes referred to as a ‘salary plus’
arrangement. It may be, however, that the employer wants to recover the cost of
providing the cycle and safety equipment loaned to the employee. Usually this would
be done through a salary sacrifice arrangement.

So just buy the buy, and claim it as an expense.

+1, or, just put it down in your accounts as a ‘tool’?

He is not an employee though he is a sole trader.

Mmm, I feel the need for a new “tool” as well.
Would a Ti Truss fork sneak under the radar?? Management have pre approved but the “ministry of fun and accounts” are sure to ask some difficult questions.
Tim
(Self employed)

I’m self employed and I’ve just bought a new bike to use on Bikeability and I’ve put that through the books.

Can’t teach to kids without demostration of the next outcome so it’s essential equipment. I wasn’t going to leave my MTB at the side of the road in a rough housing estate and risk it getting nicked when I could get a cheap bike to use at work.

We are a partnership and every year I ask our accountants about getting a bike. We can have all the laptops we want but a gift shop doesn’t need a fat bike. I did manage to get my ice spike tyres put through as it meant I can get to the shop in all weathers .
Our bank is closing in April (for our convenience 👿 ) .Our nearest branch will be 2 miles away on a one way system with no parking. As you can imagine getting change will be a nightmare and costly if we have to rely on public transport.
This year I WILL get my Fatbike. After all it’s only a £600 fully rigid bike.

I bought a bike as a company though not sole trader. A bike has no personal tax liability unlike a car for instance. I have used it to get to a couple of meetings and I may, just may, have used it for non work activities….

Thanks everyone -seems best bet is for me just keep claiming the 20p per mile and save up some more for a new bike

My sister bought a bike for anyone in the office to get to the post office to take the parcels – the fact that it is £4K of carbon didn’t bother the accountant

Your accountant couldn’t GAS if you get whacked by the Revenue!

A fat bike with panniers/frame bags to carry money to and from the bank sounds fine to me.

I guess you don’t have to take the direct route to the bank if the shop is quiet…

Your accountant couldn’t GAS if you get whacked by the Revenue!

That possibly depends on whether the accountant is doing the submitting or not.

I’d be interested to hear craigxxl’s opinion on that. Anecdotal evidence (this would be building site anecdotes now, not chatting with accountants at the pub 🙂 ) suggests that if an accountant (unknowingly) files overly creative returns, then his other clients might be more likely to have their returns scrutinised even more closely. I’m fairly sure that chartered accountants don’t really like having submitted dodgy returns.

Some of those replies up there make me feel a little 😐 It’s pretty plain that a bike isn’t really an allowable expense for lots of people’s jobs isn’t it? So, it seems to me that a fair few people are encouraging mild tax evasion. I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to go for it, then go bloody big 😀 and if you don’t get caught for the 7 years (or whatever the time limit is these days) then you’re quids in. But evading to the tune of a few hundred quid and getting caught for it isn’t really worth the hassle. When they come looking, they won’t stop until they find something else, even if it’s a genuine mistake.

You can’t do cycle to work as self employed.

We encourage tax avoidance but not evasion. Like I said previously we would disallow a percentage as private use. No point in us putting through bogus expenses. We don’t benefit when HMRC pick up on it and they decide to look at other clients. HMRC don’t just reclaim the unpaid tax now either as they’ll impose a fine too so any small gain will be wiped out with the penalties plus the expenses of having to go through any other year they then decide to query. As accountants we will charge again for this work making it even more expensive as we always have clause stating the accounts/ return is calculated on information given to be correct by the client who signs off on them being so.

You can’t do cycle to work as self employed.

But you don’t need to, as said above.

Part of the CTW legislation was for companies to have non-performing assets, ie the bike. Consequentially, just buy a bike and charge the total cost.