I used to work in a bike shop and a customer used to buy a new felt f1 ( about £3000) road bike every year and claim it against his tax bill.

I work as a cycling instructor and do teach some basic off road riding . I fancy upgrading my Alpine bike . Could i do this and pay the tax man a bit less this year?

thanks in advance.

if you only use it for work then it’s a tool of the trade and probably yes. If you use it for ‘private’ use then it becomes a bit more difficult for tax.

are you running the training through a company or self employed?

an accountant is probably the best place to start – you coudl get work clothing etc as well under the same process, I guess.

You should be able to write off everything you use for work against tax. Bike, spares, etc.

I seriously doubt that there is any legislation in place to tax somebody for private use of a bicycle as a Benefit in Kind. An accountant might want to put something in your tax return but I would expect it to be a BIK on a percentage of the bike’s value over a write-down period. By the time you split it over several years, take out “business use” to give you the private benefit, and then tax that, it won’t be a big number.

cheers people. will delve a bit further.