[Closed] mountain bike leasing.

"Can the lease payments for my personal bike be claimed as a business expense from my company?"

If you think the tax man will see it as a legitimate expense for your company then yes no reason why not....

Its a bit of a different company vehicle though!

How does this work?

I am self employed through my own Limited company.
Can the lease payments for my personal bike be claimed as a business expense from my company?

That would make leasing significantly cheaper than buying for me.

I am presuming that you need to use a bicycle as part of your business in some way. How you interpret that is fully open 🙂

Company cars have specific rules in place for reclaiming half the VAT etc and offseting a % of the value. Bicycles have no such rules in place. As it is a lease and not a hire purchase agreement then you can offset it against tax.

Please do check with your accountant that they are happy to assist you in this way. There is no reason why they should not as there is no issue with doing this.

Regards

Paul

There is no deposit to pay. We calculate a total lease amount and the initial rental is deducted from this. The remainder is divided by 24 months or 104 weeks, it's up to you. The VAT is included in the figure we quote to you.

I see, I was originally informed that a deposit of 25% RRP was required, but that was back in May.

Looking at the website the options have changed a bit since then. the option to walk after 2 years may well be a good one.

Life continues to throw those "curve balls" that eat up all your cash! Personally, I've been working extra hard, saving up and all that, and now my bathroom floor has caved in and the insurance company are playing silly so and so's and are refusing to pay up! So there goes the money on a new floor and bathroom!

Now imagine you were tied into a bike lease for the next two years at £100 a month. How would you pay for those "curve balls" then?

Hi, thank you for illustrating my point:

If you were paying £100 a month for a lease then you would be looking at a bike worth about £5,000 at retail.

If you had bought that bike outright then that £5k would come in very handy if a "curve ball" presented itself! £5k of your money is tied up in the bike. If you tried to sell it quickly to free up the cash needed to address the "curve ball" then you'd probably lose a stack of cash, certainly half the value, if it was almost new!

If you bought it on 2 years interest free credit then you'd be paying £195.66 a month once you'd paid the 10% usually required as a first payment.

You'll notice that this is £95.66 more than the equivalent lease amount.

If you'd leased the bike your household monthly income would be £95.66 a month the better 😀

Do you see my point now?

Regards

Paul

 

There is no deposit to pay. We calculate a total lease amount and the initial rental is deducted from this. The remainder is divided by 24 months or 104 weeks, it's up to you. The VAT is included in the figure we quote to you.

I see, I was originally informed that a deposit of 25% RRP was required, but that was back in May.

Hi lovewookie,

That was an error in communication on our part. Sorry. I hopefully addressed this in an earlier thread on this forum topic.

In May some incorrect terminology had been used. This has now been addressed and should be a whole lot clearer 🙂

Best regards

Paul

@ paulatmtbleasing

Simple - if I had £5k 'spare' to drop on a bike, I'd definitely have enough to cover £5k's worth of a 'curve ball'

But then again, most people aren't so sensible with their money... and resort to leasing/credit when they want something shiny but unnecessary.. 😉

Shiny but unnecessary? [url= http://www.makepiece.com/pages/Weather-or-not.aspx?pageid=426 ]essential mb usage content[/url] 😕

After my lucky borrow I can definitely see the benefit for the small business that needs a mountain bike (not sure how big that niche is...). Interesting idea and more fun than leasing a van (which is one of boring business things we may have to do).

Liking the idea of leasing a bike and ofsetting the cost against my buisness but i would have to invest in a trailer to carry my tools and i havn't seen any commercialy available window side racks specificaly designed for mountain bikes so for that reason i'm out.

It's an image to conjour with daznal.... maybe you could specialize in reglazing mountain bothies with really small windows? 😉

Hello again,

I've been pondering the point highlighted by phil w.:

My orignal quote:

Life continues to throw those "curve balls" that eat up all your cash! Personally, I've been working extra hard, saving up and all that, and now my bathroom floor has caved in and the insurance company are playing silly so and so's and are refusing to pay up! So there goes the money on a new floor and bathroom!

Phil W.'s quote

Now imagine you were tied into a bike lease for the next two years at £100 a month. How would you pay for those "curve balls" then?

I agree with his point and have considered it further. My business is about making leasing as equitable as possible for all involved.

Therefore, I am changing our terms and conditions to give our customers the assistance they would need if they found themselves unemplyed, ill or injured, and unable to bring in an income.

After all, we live in uncertain economic times, I think it is responsible of us to enable our customers to release themselves from a financial burden should they find themselves unemployed, ill or injured in some way that means they are unable to bring in an income.

In fact, we shall go further to consider all the "breadwinners" in the family. After all, I know from personal experience how difficult it can be for a family if a loved one becomes ill and is unable to bring in an income for a period of time.

The new terms and conditions are available on the website under clauses 7c and 8b.

The thing is, any tie in for a lease needs to be considered in context against the other option, purchasing a bike.

If you buy a bike with cash your cash is tied up in the bike until you sell it. If you need to sell it in a hurry you'll lose a lot of money.

If you buy it on interest free credit you are tied in for the duration of the credit term. You could clear the balance and sell the bike or you could sell it and carry on making the monthly payments, but either way, you'll lose a stack of cash again!

Leasing will let you keep your costs right down in the first place, avoids you having to worry about a second hand value, and now, you know that any lease payments outstanding will be discounted if you, [b][u]OR your partner[/u][/b], find yourselves unable to meet the payments needed due to unemployment, illness or injury.

I think that the new clauses help to make leasing an even more attractive and sensible option, so thank you for the feedback phil w.

What do you think?

fair play to Paul for taking to long to answer everyones questions.

i actually quite like the idea. it's certainly making me consider the full-on DH bike that i'd love to have but could never justify blowing a huge sum of money on.
maybe knowing there's a 2 year time limit on the bike would be encouragement to actually get out and use it more as well.
i'm currently shopping for a van but when i have my transport in place i'll definitely consider leasing a bike to use next year on my euro travels.

Ive been chatting to paul for a while now about leasing my next bike, and honestly i cant see a down side to this. I brought my last bike on 0% finance, which was a great idea that i could split it down in to easier monthly repayments. However the running costs and loss im going to make when i sell it (which im currently trying to do) is making me look at other options.

The idea of leasing a bike for 2 years and then trading it in for the next one really appeals to me. Yes i am a bike snob and enjoy having the latest inovations, but thats me 😀 . Plus the idea of getting any 'consumables' (chains, cassettes, gear cables, tires, etc.) At trade prices just seals it for me.

The only problem ive got, is what bike i should get next...