Buying a motorcycle through a Ltd company.

[gorillaonabik...]

So have resigned, given up my day job and going it alone again. Older, wiser, hopefully have learned from my last experience which involved putting 50% of my company in my wife's name (tax reasons) who then divorced me...

Was reading on the net (so it must be true) that motorcycles are in the same tax classification as vans for the purposes of buying them through a Ltd company. This means that as long as private use is negligible, I can effectively expense a motorcycle through my company which can then pay insurance, tax, petrol etc... for business use. If this is true, it would save me a ton of money in tax and allow me to buy a shiny, second-hand motorbike.

In addition, I have gleaned from the internet that if there is a tiny bit of private use, then I will have to pay a proportionate level of running costs. This would be awesome as I do all my own servicing so this number would be very small indeed.

If not, will just keep going with my 10+ year old bike.

However, there is a huge amount of misinformation out there so wanted to ask if anyone had any experience of company owned motorcycles or even buying a motorcycle through their own company for business use. What's your experience of this?
____________________
FZR400 (blown engine), ZXR750 (blown engine), ZX6R (accident), CBR600 which had engine issues after which I learned to change gear..., CBR900, CBR924 (stolen), CB600, CB1300 (everything blew up), BMW K1300GT (written off, hit from rear while stationary), Bandit 1250 for a couple of months, Triumph Sprint ST 1050 (nicked) and somewhere in there, I wrote off a Ducati 748 at Cadwell.

[guile]

A good old tax-avoidance thread......

You better start paying your taxes or how will ISIS continue to get their funding?

[P.addy]

[Triton Thrasher]

Ask your accountant.
____________________
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[c-m]

A motorcycle is just like any other vehicle for tax purposes. Any private use will of course be considered a benefit and will be taxed. Business use is deductible.

[gorillaonabik...]

[Phantom Shadow]

How much private use are we talking?

If it is more than insignificant then you'll be looking at 20% of its market value when first made available to you as benefit in kind. Your company would also have to pay 13.8% class 1A national insurance on this as well as you paying income tax on the benefit. Insurance, servicing etc will also increase your benefit in kind by the private use proportion.

If you want to use it as a personal vehicle as well it may be more beneficial for you to buy it yourself and then claim 24p per business mile.

[struan80]

I will be attempting it, Just simply put down cost of bike as an addition expense in column for me, accountant will do the rest.

There is 'official' info on internet as well to on this with details.

Believe Gordon Brown era brought to encourage biking to reduce congestion etc.

Different to cars, not worth it for me to have car through Ltd company.

I usually commute to work up a gangway or by helicopter, but do have the odd trip to the office or a meeting, bike.

[Rogerborg]

[Matt B]

Bikes purchased after budget changes in April 2009 are now classed as plant which makes them 100% deductable.

I looked at it myself a few years back and there is definitely an advantage, even for self-employed/sole traders. There are a few ways to do it (company or director ownership), and from what I understand the best route depends on the amount of private use involved.

This sums it all up pretty well.

https://www.comanandco.co.uk/motorcycles
____________________
stinkwheel: He had an animated .gif of a cat performing fellatio. It's not socially acceptable. It can have real life adverse effects on other people.

[gorillaonabik...]

[cheeseman]

Presumably any fast food outlet must be doing this. Have you tried popping round to your local pizza takeaway and asked for advice?
____________________
XJ600S->Sprint ST 955i * ; Now ST1100 + W650

[struan80]

[tonyh]

Hi there,

I've been looking into getting my bike transferred over to my own limited company, but I'm having a problem with insurance. Everyone I have spoken to (Carole Nash, Bennetts, AA and more) will only insure me if I am the registered owner & keeper - they won't insure me if my company is the registered owner/keeper.

Has anyone found either an insurer who will insure a company-owned bike or another way round this issue?
____________________
Tony H

[-]

Your other option is to expense the bike yourself and charge your limited company for business mileage. I do this with my car.

It's about 44p a mile for up to 10,000 miles per annum, of which something like 28p is fuel, so you also claim the VAT back on that. Not sure what a motorcycle will be, you'll have to look it up.
____________________
TZR250 2MA road, TZR250 1KT road, TZR250 2MA race, TDR250, YZF-750R Boost colours.
Jaguar S Type 3.0 V6 Sport R, VW Transporter T5 GP LWB Shuttle 140ps DSG.

[Kris]

My company motorbike is insured through <spit> MCE. You can be the registered keeper and the Ltd Co. own the bike.

I made sure to get Class 1 business use only with 0 personal miles to keep the accountant happy..
____________________
NSR125RR - ZXR750H1 - ZX9R E1 - GSF600S - GSF600SK3 - VFR400-NC30 - SV1000N - ST1100-R - CBR900RR-R - GSF1200SK5 - GSF600SK1 - VFR1200FA - GSXR1000K2 - ZZR1400 D8F
www.prisonplanet.com

[Rogerborg]

I've never suffered a loss, but does the question of ownership really come up?

Given the number of vehicles that change hands for ca$h, I'd always just assumed that insurers would only really care what the V5C said. I know, "NOT PROOF OF OWNERSHIP", but what else is?
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Kris]

[gorillaonabik...]

[M.C]

[tonyh]

Thanks guys - hadn't appreciated that the V5 only shows the registered keeper and not the owner - I'd assumed I would need to to a "transfer of ownership" with the DVLA when I sold the bike to the company, but apparently not.
____________________
Tony H

[Hawkeye1250FA]

A bit late to the party but I do this on Bike number 1 (Business use bike) - Paid for it from the bank account of the Ltd company and the V5 has my name and address on.

I pay for the fuel from my personal account and then claim the mileage back as expenses.

Because this bike is 100% business used there's no BIK and the entire cost can be offset against corporation tax.

If I want to "buy" the bike from the company in the future I believe its a negligible sum as well (25% of its value or something - I'll need to check with my accountant whenever that time comes)

It is well worth doing, but discuss it with your accountant as they may not want to be a part of it.

I didn't do it with the 2nd bike as at the time I didnt have enough profit available to cover the 3-4k I'd need. But I believe I can simply transfer the money to me personal account and simply take no dividend payment that month - Saving on dividend tax as well.

[secretagentmo...]