Cycle to work scheme - do I need to buy a bike or can I upgrade my own bike.
The company I work for has started the above scheme. Do I have to purchase a bike or can I upgrade my bike instead? Like getting new forks or a double barrel to make it more "road" friendly.
Only applies to full bikes
(unless you find a bikeshop willing to look the other way, lots will allow you to top up the voucher but not as many would let u do this i expect)
Cheeky sod!
You HAVE to buy a bike... but you don't need to spend it all on just the bike.
I don't think there's anything stopping you from buying the cheapest bike that you can legitimately claim is for YOU (so not a kids bike then) and then spend the rest of the money on bits.
This from personal experience (£300 bike & £700 of bits)
Technically no............... but it sort of depends on how your company do it. Its not actually a "scheme" its just a tax free benefit.
I run our company C2W "scheme", so I get the individual to buy the "bike" using their company credit card and give me an invoice. Or cash or whatever. I dont get the shop to do the "scheme", its just an agreement between the employee and employer that they will pay it back (hire it) over the period using a salary sacrifice, nothing more than that. I just need an invoice. I dont put it on our balance sheet as its not something I wish to capitalise or depreciate.
I then charge deduct 1/24th per month of this gross from their salary over the next 2 years. Charge them a nominal fee at the end to get round the tax mans idea of a value of a 2 year old bike and everyone is happy.
Oh and if your company has a credit licence there is no £1000 limit. I spent about 6.5k on mine 🙂
If they dont have a credit licence you can buy one. Its simple.
ok, thanks for all the info
It's designed to : [i]"promote healthier journeys to work and to reduce environmental pollution"[/i].
You wait until the Daily Mail finds out that Cycle to Work Scheme cheats are getting the taxpayer to fund their expensive non-work related hobby. They'll be outraged.
you do have to buy a bike, there isn't anything stopping you from needing to swap some of the components with another bike, you know to make your CTW work bike better for commuting *cough*
Depending on the scheme, you don't always have to buy a bike. My company has a scheme set up with the LBS in the area and one of the main selling points is that you don't have to buy a bike. You can spend the money on components, accessories etc.
TBH you are not always better off joining these schemes. They don't always benefit the employee. I tried for 2 years to get my company to join a CTW and when they finnaly agreed, the accountant's said you would be better off buying a new bike on a 0% deal. As you don't pay tax on the bike, this can have implications to any future pension payment's that you are entitled to when you retire. It is this kind of information that is not made very clear when starting up these schemes.