ziggy, i'm staggered that you're so naive, neither this government nor any successive government gives a flying **** about your carbon footprint. after paye the car is the next biggest earner in taxes, not to mention a massive employer, fuelling more paye, followed by fags and booze. this is just a token gesture to look good in the eyes of the world, the last thing any western government wants is for people to stop using their cars.

like i said tj, whatever my accountant tells me to pay… that's what i pay him for… to know all the loopholes legal tax breaks 😉

Stu McGroo – YGM

I'm just bumping this back to the front page to make it easy to find for the HMRC guys…..

The real problem with C2W in my opinion is that while it started ostensibly as an incentive to cycle to work by providing a subsidised bike, it has degenerated into a moneymaking scheme for the companies administering the scheme.
As a low tax bracket NHS employee I saved well less than 20%. Alternatively I could have gone to the shop, asked for the 10% discount they have to give the admin company, and saved the wait and hassle. I know what ill do next time.

The thing is it’s a government endorsed scheme to allow companies to basically use their VAT No’ and help employees get a bicycle to commute on as a cheap way to improve their fitness, save fuel and reduce pollution, a perfectly honourable goal…

Obviously if your employer runs the scheme and you are a bit more than a casual commuter then you should take advantage where possible and get a bike that can be used to commute during the week but could also be used at the weekends for a bit of “Leisure use” and I don’t think that would upset too many HR departments…

But deliberately abusing the scheme to obtain bikes and Kit for other people is just wrong, They specifically state this is against the rules of scheme in the literature. A “Loophole” would be a vague statement or omission from the rules set out for the scheme; which allowed you to fiddle it, for instance it’s not explicitly stated how often the bike should be used for commuting or even if it can/cannot be used for purposes other than commuting to work so "weekend leisure use" is is less of a sticking point than trying to obtain goods for someone outside of your company.

Using on organiosations VAT No and also bumping down your pre-tax pay a tad, whilst re-distributing falsely obtained good is Fraud whatever you choose to call, it it's simply an abuse of a privileged position and employers/HMRC would be well within their rights to deal out a harsh penalty to offenders…

Do it if you feel you have some sort of “robin Hood” justification. you’re blatantly wrong but hey, it only matters if you get caught, alternatively you could try and get your own employer to joint C2W…

druidh – Member
I'm just bumping this back to the front page to make it easy to find for the HMRC guys…..

I'm sure they have guys working overtime on this one, right now.

well my accountant emailed me back as follows;

Dear Mr McGroo,

It's all about justification. If there is a way in which you feel you could argue that you sometimes use the bike for work then you could claim…

Hope this helps.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Accountant.

he goes into more detail but that doesn't matter. so there you go, not a loophole, fiddle, con, lie, re-distribution, false claim or piss take in sight. 😆

it'll cost you more if you buy it from LL anyway, you'll save nowt

oh, and can i have a go?

don't talk to me about LL, i proper f'cked up there! (ref; mtbmaff)

anyway it'll come from whoever offers the best dodgy invoice allround deal and yes you can.

s'not like you weren't warned!

shudda come to the wyre 😉

My collegue got a ctw voucher from work, and we regreted it later as you dont really save anything. Most shops wont exchange it for anything in a sale as the voucher company take a 10% cut in the sale price, forcing you to pay top prices and thus saving very little at all, if not restricting your choice. This perticular scheme dosent allow you to make up a slight shortfall in the voucher value with cash should you find something you like but are just short, and once you have the voucher which had a short 2 month expiery date, you had to pay for it weather you used it or not. No sending it back. Was a bit of a scam looking back. Certianly dont think it would be such a shame to loose it.

whilst looking at the c2w rules i noticed that if your commute involves a train journey you are allowed to have two c2w bikes, one for each end of the train ride! these government bods think of everything!

anyway, i've got a better idea 😉

Good luck Mr McGroo, but if your accountant hasn't already advised you this, from what I've heard HMRC are rather hotter at checking up on people buying leisure items for "business use" than they are at policing C2W fiddles.

didn't the government's 'computers for everyone' (or whatever it was called) get shut down by this kind of n0bhead behaviour.

just buy a bike, get it cheap, lovely. stop trying to be too clever. before you ruin it for everyone.

SO many people trying to get one over the taxman to save a few quid. what's the point?

tracknicko,

didn't the government's 'computers for everyone' (or whatever it was called) get shut down by this kind of n0bhead behaviour.

no, it got "shut down" because the purpose of the scheme had been achieved.

just buy a bike, get it cheap, lovely.

brilliant, why didn't i think of that!

stop trying to be too clever.

clever for you maybe but i'm fine with it ta.

before you ruin it for everyone.

oh right, cos "everyone" is just queing up to buy a new bike!

SO many people trying to get one over the taxman to save a few quid. what's the point?

er, didn't you just answer your own question there… doh!

i think i'll phone my accountant, see if i can buy my bike through my business

you can. same as a company car.

except unlike a car, you can have the use of one for free

exactly thomthumb but with talk like that you'll have the forum-police on your case.