THE level of benefit in kind car tax you pay for receiving free fuel for your company car rises again for the 2017/18 tax year.

For the tax year 2017/18 the fuel scale charge is £22,600.

It makes deciding whether to take free fuel a more important decision than ever. Never having to pay for your fuel might sound ideal; but you pay for it in ever increasingly expensive company car tax.

So it’s important to work out if it really is worth taking free fuel for your private journeys – and whether the ‘free’ bit is actually costing you money.

How to work out if free fuel is worth it

• You will need to know the following:
• Your company car’s combined fuel consumption figure
• The CO2 emissions of your company car
• The company car tax band of your company car
• Your marginal rate of tax
• The current cost of fuel (such as the AA’s Fuel Price Report)
• And, of course, the government fuel scale charge
• Or use our Free Fuel Benefit Checker