Bike to Work scheme – Is it every checked?

There seem to be a lot of high horses around here, lets hope nobody falls off and injures themselves 😉

Yes mate – someone from HMRC and your manager will be standing at the end of your drive before you leave for work every morning checking that you’re on your new bike and not driving.

Absolutely terrifying.

Not speaking in any professional capacity, but HMRC has bigger fish to fry.

That said, under the old stricter rules, a lot of bike shops would offer me C2W over the limit or on sale bikes, then retract when they found out who my employer was. Shops seemed more worried than scheme users.

Our own scheme had a “50% of mileage must be commuting” but never checked to my knowledge.

So it’s down to Rule 1. If you know you aren’t going to use it for any commuting, and you can afford to buy the bike without using the scheme, it’s on your conscience whether you use the scheme to make a saving to avoid adding to the already overflowing tax pot that funds the public services you use.

If you think that puts me on a high horse, at least I’m further away from the manure!

There seem to be a lot of high horses around here, lets hope nobody falls off and injures themselves 😉

I also suspect there are a good few that perform some mental gymnastics around the subject on this one specific issue to suit their needs or actions 😉 If it was golf sticks and only golf sticks that got a tax benefit because of some sort of health benefit I’d bet a good few might find their moral compass got a calibration.

Fully understand its a cycling forum, but if I were to post that I’ve been avoiding tax on a multi thousand pound vehicle that wasn’t a bicycle, I’d get lynched and probably reported to HMRC on here.

For the record fair play and enjoy your cheap bikes people who can enjoy the perk.

I used my last C2W voucher to buy an enduro frame, not even a full bike.

How dare I use a legal tax framework to buy something from an independent UK bike company. Something I probably wouldn’t have bought without the tax incentive. I must be an evil tax dodger.

“How dare I use a legal tax framework to buy something from an independent UK bike company. Something I probably wouldn’t have bought without the tax incentive. I must be an evil tax dodger”

Well I’d start by keeping quiet about it, so as not to make envious people push for tighter rules. 😀

How dare I use a legal tax framework to buy something from an independent UK bike company.

Except it isn’t is it? See the HMRC rules above.

Seeing as the cycle to work companies are in it for the money and the bike shops are in it for the (paultry amount) of money and the hope of repeat custom/servicing no one checks.

There seem to be a lot of high horses around here, lets hope nobody falls off and injures themselves

If I fall off anything, it will be a bike I’ve paid for myself 🙂

a legal tax framework

It’s not legal. It’s a requirement for the scheme that you ride to work on the bike, and you’re not.

How dare I use a legal tax framework to buy something from an independent UK bike company. Something I probably wouldn’t have bought without the tax incentive. I must be an evil tax dodger.

I mean you’re no Amazon or Starbucks, but as the legislation/guidance does state that “at least 50% of the cycles use must be “qualifying journeys” ie commuting to work purposes” – yes, I just looked it up – you appear to have misused a legal tax framework.

Technically speaking, as I’m now aware of a potential tax issue, I have 72 hours to report it, or I’m the one on a disciplinary charge. And we do have the powers (if we need to use them) to get your details from ST Towers to pursue you.

But if you come off your bike and the NHS hasn’t got the funding to fix you, just remember that little bit of tax you’ve saved might have made a difference (winking emoji)

“That said, under the old stricter rules, a lot of bike shops would offer me C2W over the limit or on sale bikes”

There never was a limit in the tax legislation (nor restriction on sale bikes that I recall) the former was a consumer credit issue so employers with them were quite happy to have no restriction on cost.

If I fall off anything, it will be a bike I’ve paid for myself

But im also paying for the bike on c2w, the full value of the bike comes off my pay check. Yes you can argue that there will be a short fall in tax, but in my case I cover the cost through an hr of overtime a week that realistically I wouldn’t have done otherwise (wife asked me to justify spending more money on a new bike, so I appeased her by saying I’d work harder). So the tax man isn’t any worse off really

also, if I couldn’t get the bike on c2w I wouldn’t have paid full price for it. So not only would I be using the car instead. But a lbs would have missed on a sale!

but then again I saved 200 quid. I’m not so comfortable with folks saving multiple thousands each year, however I expect they are the exception rather than the rule

Isn’t B2W, just the same as Salary Sacrifice cars…a means of getting cars/bikes into the market, supporting jobs and triggering the economy?  I don’t mean this to sound like trickle down economics, but genuinely, the only reason I can afford a second had EV is because someone took the depreciation hit first.  I’m not sure I care that it was done via salary sacrifice.  Same with many of my second hand bike bits.

It’s one of those irregular verbs.

I plan my tax affairs carefully.
You avoid tax.
He evades tax.

I struggle to get very excited about potential tax evasion with c2w. I mean, sure, that’s not what the rules say, but it’s a pretty small amount really, and if it wasn’t used for c2w, people would just avoid tax by putting it in a pension instead. Doubt it really makes any difference to the taxman in the grand scheme of things – if anything, it might help through VAT.

@thecaptain beat me to it.

I used it once, on a bike I mostly use to cycle to work, bonkers me!

I enjoyed this comment above:

if they’re self employed

then they are often ‘optimising their ability to minimise their taxable pay’ anyway and can claim back VAT on ‘business’ expenses blah blah blah. I have been paye for 20+ years and there’s been this one actual benefit to it, aside from lining the duck houses of MPs with silk of course.

*Much of this is said tongue in cheek, aside from the actually commuting to work by bike, when I commute it’s usually by bike.

Can’t beat a good cycle to work bed wetting thread.

I’ve had three bikes through the scheme and no one has every questioned anything.

I also have a salary sacrifice car. Am I the baddies?

I also have a salary sacrifice car. Am I the baddies?

You have single handedly sent British public services back to the dark ages.

No just an evil Tory with sharp elbows.  There are lots of them about.

I’ve had 4 vouchers in the last 10 years.

The last one was a frame only purchase from a UK bike brand, I thought I was doing the lord’s work.

No checks, just the occasional sarcastic comment from our HR dept about commuting.

I also have a salary sacrifice car. Am I the baddies?

No because the rules are set up for this. It used to be a tax dodge then they introduced BIK tax to compensate.

It’s not legal. It’s a requirement for the scheme that you ride to work on the bike, and you’re not.

@molgrips – I didn’t say anything about not riding the bike to work. How do you know whether I am or not?

I didn’t say anything about not riding the bike to work.

So do you ride the enduro bike your built up from the frame you bought on C2W to work?

There’s a new fraud bill being released soon to cut down on benefits fraud, so feel less guilty about C2W, as the government are offsetting it against the money they’ll make back from the regulars at wetherspoons 🥸

So I think we’ve established, whilst it isn’t checked, it’s best not to advertise your small tax wheeze, so as not to annoy the rest of us who don’t have access to such a scheme.
Also moaning about restrictions of these schemes will attract tiny violins, when talking about a bike that will never be used as the scheme intended, or as some I know, literally never get used at all.

But ultimately not something to get aggravated by.

But ultimately not something to get aggravated by.

This applies to every thread on here.

So do you ride the enduro bike your built up from the frame you bought on C2W to work?

Yes.

I admit the DH casing Kryptotals are a bit draggy but on the flip side I’ve not had any punctures yet.

Didn’t someone here buy a canoe on it?

Not a fan of the scheme.

Penalises those at the bottom and disproportionately benefits those at the top.

Germany had something very similar now and I wasn’t able to take part as I was self employed.

“No because the rules are set up for this. It used to be a tax dodge then they introduced BIK tax to compensate.”

BIK on EV’s obviously going from 0 to just above 0 has meant it’s forced a load of EV’s into the market. So like C2W it’s flawed but is overall resulting in the desired behaviours. I had a one on the scheme early on and advocated it to a few at work who are still regular commuters.

“I don’t support it because I don’t get to use it” is honest, but not a particularly compelling argument.

technically i don’t ride to work on my cycle scheme bike but i do take it to

a) ride the two miles from where i park if there’s no parking space, even though I pay for one (thank you NHS)

b) i play the how far can i ride in my lunch hour game

c) i drive to work, get there early and go and do a 12-25 mile “fake commute”

does that count?

I don’t see any high horses in this thread, just tiny Shetland style ponies.

““I don’t support it because I don’t get to use it” is honest, but not a particularly compelling argument.”

I do find myself slightly envious at times, but I’m over it, I commute for free. So money saved can go towards shiny things.

Although said shiny things will be a bit more expensive from some shops as the shops have to pay for the admin of the schemes that others use for their cheap bikes, as I understand it.

But would those shops still exist without the scheme(s)?

Shetland ponies are almost singularly inappropriate for the commute and should never have been eligible for the Horse to Work scheme.

Wow, this turned out strange. A simple “No, no-one checks and everyone accepts it was a good idea which has just become a nice tax perk for the rich” would have sufficed.

Anyway, I haven’t bothered in all the years it has been running so probably won’t bother now although some new tools might be handy…