Company cars steady the ship
- Company car decline slows according to HMRC BIK tax figures;
- Economical cars between 115g/km and 124g/km of CO2 dominate corporate car parks;
- BIK payers on private fuel use showed marked decline as more drivers reap tax advantages of paying their own fuel costs.
TAX savvy motors are leading a trend of stabilisation among the use of company cars as the favoured method of business travel.
Figures released by HMRC reveal the number of company cars in the UK has remained constant over the past two years reversing an earlier slide in number recorded post 2008 recession.
And cars producing between 115g/km and 124g/km of CO2 form the bulk of company car fleets as user-choosers select the BIK friendliest executive models.
The Taxman’s figures for 2013/14 show that BIK was paid on 940,000 vehicles. While this is still 10,000 down on the previous year’s figures, the rate of decline has slowed sharply since the peak of height of 1.6M paid by company car drivers for the year 1999/2000.
Drivers paying BIK on fuel for private use also showed a marked decline responding to expert advice suggesting paying for private use fuel was the most tax efficient way of using a company car. Figures for 2013/14 slipped to 200,000 from 220,000 in 2012/13 and 240,000 in 2011/12.
An even bigger drop was recorded in employees paying tax on mileage above the tax-free Approved Mileage Allowance Payment allowance. For 2013/14, this slipped to 280,000 down 30,000 on year 2012/13 which was down from 380,000 for the year 2011/12.
Employees paying BIK on vans increased slightly to 60,000 from the 2012/13 figure of 70,000.
