There’s a government tax break that allows your employer to provide you with use of a bike for commuting and work use free of tax.
Many employers run a scheme that takes advantage of it, whereby they buy a bike, rent it to you for a period of up to 18 months and then usually sell it to you.
The rental payments benefit from the tax break, meaning you can avoid income tax, NI, and VAT. The final payment does not benefit from any tax break, and confusingly, cannot be guaranteed before the end of the hire period, so any amount you see for what the purchase payment will can only be considered an example. There are also minimum amounts that can be charged for the final payment without it being considered a taxable benefit. This is dependent on the age of the bike, so the final payment to buy the bike is now often delayed for 2-3 years.
Your employer may run the scheme directly, or use a third party such as Cyclescheme or the Halfords scheme. If they use one of these suppliers, you need to buy from a participating shop, and the scheme will usually take a cut from the supplier, possibly limiting the deals available to you.
Your employer should be able to tell you the details of their scheme, and what sort of savings you can expect to see.
