Just about to order a nice shiny new roadie on this scheme.

Am going for a Cube GTC Compact. Its £1259 which is no superb price, bt for full 105 i think its not too bad and as my company limits a £1000 the kind man is allowing me to pay the excess.

However I asked for a quotation and all he seemed to think was he could give me his cyclescheme code, which he did, and then i enter that online as a £1000 qoute.

I thought i had to obtain a written qoute which i gave to my employer however? Can anyone share any light on this?

Also if anyone has a better bike for the price do let me now! Likewise anyone that has a Cube GTC

What shop?

The Cyclescheme rules prohibit shops from taking cash “top-ups”. You’re also going to get into a bit of a fankle when it comes to the end of the loan period. I suggest you go off and do a wee bit of research. Unless you are a higher rate tax payer, you’ll actually save very little going through Cyclescheme and you might be as well to ask the guy in the shop to just give you a discount (he loses some money to them anyway).

Edit: I have a Cube GTC Agree. Fabulous!

how will i come into the fankle at the end of the hire period, as far as cyclescheme say is that the only limit is down to the employer, at which my employer hasn’t indicated any limit as of yet, apart from asuming its £1000
The cost of the bike comes in at £610 and although the fair market price has to be paid at the end, this results in a small value. It also means i can pay the repayments back monthly which i can afford as i cant afford them in one lump sum.

Well at least the bikes good, my friend rides a Look 555 any comments on how it compares?

lewismorgan – Member
how will i come into the fankle at the end of the hire period, as far as the company is concerned the cost of the bike was £1000.
I know this is something Ribble are helpful with.
The cost of the bike comes in at £610 and although the fair market price has to be paid at the end, this results in a small value. It also means i can pay the repayments back monthly which i can afford as i cant afford them in one lump sum.

Ok – first of all, you’re on a public forum admitting fraud against (a) your company, (b) Cyclesheme and (c) HMRC. Ignoring that for the moment…

How have you calculated the cost of the bike? Have you taken into account the fact that you now need to pay VAT on top of the monthly payments?

Have you checked the end of loan payment. The rules changed recently and it’s now much more than most folk realised it would be.

Treating it as a cheap loan is a much more realistic way of looking at it. You might get as good a deal on an interest free credit card – and still get a discount from the shop.

The Agree is very comfortable and ideal for longer days out. It’s not “sharp” like a real racer, but then you won’t care if you’re not racing it 🙂

I’m not sure where its fraudulent towards anyone, and i’ll think you’ll find this has occurred on STW before. Neither is it fraudulent towards HMRC as they still recieve exactly the same.

I have checked it with my company aswell, the 25% s an advisory but as they say, they don’t want to be stuck with the bike so they’ll virtually give it away.

VAT nor NI is paid on the monthly payments.

ah all good then 🙂

evans and halfords will also allow this

25% isn’t just an advisory. If they give it to you for less than this, you’ll have to pay tax on the difference as it will be classed as a Benefit in Kind.

You WILL have to pay VAT on the monthly payments.

Halfords don’t operate with Cyclescheme.

As I wrote above, go and do your research – or don’t and ignore the well-intentioned advice I’m giving you, free of charge, in my own time.

I know that Halfords do not, but they still operate with Cycle2work which is who cycle-scheme operate through. I am listening to your advice and am greatful, but i can assure you the quotation generate on the cycle2work site includes the VAT on the monthly payments, no “extra” costs are included.

I’m not stopping you from turning your computer off, your advice is appreciated, but don’t make it sound like your saving a life, your not

I’m not stopping you from turning your computer off, your advice is appreciated, but don’t make it sound like your saving a life, your not

FFS Lewis – you either want advice or you don’t. Druidh has a lot of experience of cyclescheme from both sides and you would do well to listen to him.

I am listening, and i’m also thanking him for his help

My final payment was about 12% and then I paid the minuscule tax on it over all the bike cost me about £850 for a £1100 bike as they shop gave me 10% discount.

Hello. I couldn’t help but read this and feel like there is a solution. I’m genuinely trying to help, not spam:

Take a read of:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/mountain-bike-leasing/page/2

Some questions were asked by self employed people. However, It can indirectly apply to employees as well since we do leases through companies as well.

If your employer looked at introducing this as an option for employees, then they could offset the whole lease cost against tax and claim back the VAT and then sub-hire to you at a lower rate (typcally 25-30% less).

It avoids the benefit in kind complications as well.

It’s new so not many people have heard of it.

I know that Halfords do not, but they still operate with Cycle2work which is who cycle-scheme operate through. I am listening to your advice and am greatful, but i can assure you the quotation generate on the cycle2work site includes the VAT on the monthly payments, no “extra” costs are included.

“Cycle to work” is the generic name for tax break.

“Cycle2Work” is the Halfords implementation of this scheme.

“Cyclescheme” is another commercial operator of the scheme.

There is no set way to calculate the monthly payments, so figures taken from one scheme do not necessarily apply to another.

“Topping up” is outside the rules of the scheme. The reason that your employer limits you to £1k is because the group credit licence only covers bikes up to that value. If they rent you a bike worth more than that, they’re not covered by the licence. Similarly, renting you a bike that they only partly own is probably not possible either under that licence.

In theory, the tax man could declare the scheme invalid, force you to pay tax on the repayments, and have you end up paying around 125% of the value of the bike (including the final payment). There may also be repercussions for your employer operating outside the terms of the credit licence.

In practice, it’s extremely unlikely that HMRC/OFT would take an interest.

Hello. I couldn’t help but read this and feel like there is a solution.

Hmm. I don’t think this helps much. I find the comparison on your page http://www.bikeleasingcompany.com/ pretty misleading. You suggest that under the 4 options are:

a) Cash for £4,525
b) 0% credit card for £4,660.70
c) 2yr loan for £4,525
d) Lease for £3,164.49

Apparently (d) leaves a wopping £1,360.51 in my pocket! Of course, the difference is that under the first 3 options, I also own a 2 year old, £4.5k bike, so it’s not a like-for-like comparison. (It’s also not clear why (b) costs more than cash)

In order to buy it off you, I have to pay a further £1,583.75.

I also find some of the suggestions on the other thread a bit odd. I don’t believe that leasing something rather than buying it means that the normal rules regarding legitimate business expenditure don’t apply. If the bicycle is for personal use, you can’t treat the lease payments as a legitimate business expense, so can’t set them against tax or reclaim VAT. Similarly, having a company lease something and then make it available to an employee is still giving the employee a (taxable) benefit in kind.

In the case of bicycles there is an exemption for making bikes available to employees (the cycle to work scheme), but I don’t think that having the company lease the bicycle on the sort of terms you propose will help. I believe that in order to sub-lease to an employee, the company would need a credit licence, and if they were to mirror the terms that you offer then I suspect that the exemption wouldn’t apply as there’s an automatic right to purchase. Even if you could treat the lease payments as exempt, it’s not tax efficient as you’re paying way more than HMRC’s minimum values for transfer of ownership.