Cycle2Work scheme question.....

forbez

Hopefully this is a slightly different C2W question, the company I work for will be operating this through the Cyclescheme, and from what I understand is, I get a voucher for a bike, go to the shop and pedal home. The company then take a pecentage out of my pay, pre-tax, and then at the end I pay a final purchase fee, dependant on the fair value of the bike, at a year old.


As my missus works in the same company, i was wondering whether or not I would be able to make the most of her £1000, and put it with my £1000 certificate, and claim for a single bike?
As far as the government and company are concerned the required payments are being made.

I'll also discuss this with my LBS when i can, but thought I would ask you good chaps.

t0pc4t

Unless your LBS willing to be naughty, no.

baconater

The bike shop won't let u , as u have to get a quote then go back and submit it to your work before they give you he voucher for the bIke

cooldad

Baconater wrote:

The bike shop won't let u , as u have to get a quote then go back and submit it to your work before they give you he voucher for the bIke

Although they could give you two invoices for the combined value and a different bike.
Probably wouldn't want to do it as it is called fraud.

Andrew_J_Heard

it can and has been done so its just depends on how willing your LBS are to mnipulate the paper work etc

on the CTWS your not supposed to buy anything but a complete bike and cycling equpiment and your not supposed to be able to top it up either but i have heard of people buying £1500 bikes and using the voucher to pay part of it and even people buying frames only.

t0pc4t

I may or may not have known someone who got their bike shop to give a quote for a Trance X4 valued at £1000 and then possibly handed the resultant voucher and £400 over and walked out with an anthem X4, allegedly.

forbez

cooldad wrote:

Baconater wrote:

The bike shop won't let u , as u have to get a quote then go back and submit it to your work before they give you he voucher for the bIke

Although they could give you two invoices for the combined value and a different bike.
Probably wouldn't want to do it as it is called fraud.

Thats exactly what I was thinking, but seeing as everyone is getting their relevant amount of money, and the only difference is I end up with 1 rather than 2 bikes.


I have emailed the group in work who are organising this, and have asked them about the higher value available. (£4500 i believe) dependant on whether the company has a Consumer Credit Licence. I suppose that will clear any issues I have.

The other option is to ask a LBS to invoice me for £1000, and I pay the difference, which I know is frowned upon, but has been done.

cooldad

Not a case of being frowned upon, but your company owns the bike, whatever the value.
Not you.

Pirahna

I could be wrong but I believe the gubberment changed the rules a bit. At the end of the year you buy the bike for 25% of the purchase price, not the £1 or so it is now.

Andrew_J_Heard

Pirahna wrote:

I could be wrong but I believe the gubberment changed the rules a bit. At the end of the year you buy the bike for 25% of the purchase price, not the £1 or so it is now.

yes your right. the original fair market value was 7% for purcahses over £500 and then the bike was yours, but you have to admit this is really low. so the government now say that 25% is a fair market value, meaning that it can eat into alot of your savings.

apparantly though some schemes (not all) are now doing a "longer lease" term. at the end of the year they will ask you to pay 7% of the original amount in order to "lease" the bike for another 3 years (no more monthly payment just the 7% deposit). and at the end of the 3 years you can either have the 7% back or just keep the bike.

so essentially you wont own the bike for 4 years in total but after paying the 7% after year one its pretty much yours.

KitsuneAndy

Andrew_J_Heard wrote:

Pirahna wrote:

I could be wrong but I believe the gubberment changed the rules a bit. At the end of the year you buy the bike for 25% of the purchase price, not the £1 or so it is now.

yes your right. the original fair market value was 7% for purcahses over £500 and then the bike was yours, but you have to admit this is really low. so the government now say that 25% is a fair market value, meaning that it can eat into alot of your savings.

apparantly though some schemes (not all) are now doing a "longer lease" term. at the end of the year they will ask you to pay 7% of the original amount in order to "lease" the bike for another 3 years (no more monthly payment just the 7% deposit). and at the end of the 3 years you can either have the 7% back or just keep the bike.

so essentially you wont own the bike for 4 years in total but after paying the 7% after year one its pretty much yours.

The other way they do it, is extend the term to 3 years and then 'gift' you the bike. This means that rather than pay the full final payment, you just pay the P11D tax due for a 'benefit in kind'.

stellamandude

Speak to the shop, I know quite a few colleagues that have got some good "deals" through one particular shop

Cash top ups
3 bikes for 1K
Extra items thrown in

It's all business to the shop at the end of the day.

Don't ask, don't get

*AL*

Pirahna wrote:

I could be wrong but I believe the gubberment changed the rules a bit.

Indeed, the government have implemented changes to the C2W scheme.

Sadly, too many fools filled internet forums with threads asking the best way to abuse what was once a very good thing,
and the powers to be decided to jump on it.

Some people are just too think to know when they are onto a good thing :roll:

Briggo

Baconater wrote:

The bike shop won't let u , as u have to get a quote then go back and submit it to your work before they give you he voucher for the bIke

No they dont, my work uses cyclescheme and a voucher gets sent directly to me before Ive been to an LBS, no invoices etc are required.

*AL* wrote:

Indeed, the government have implemented changes to the C2W scheme.

Sadly, too many fools filled internet forums with threads asking the best way to abuse what was once a very good thing,
and the powers to be decided to jump on it.

Some people are just too think to know when they are onto a good thing :roll:

Despite this its still a way of saving a lot of money, you just have to extend the lease for 3 years until the bike is legally yours. "oh no".

Secondly its an interest free no questions asked loan, which you save money on, there isn't a single bad thing about it.

So many drama queens rambling on about something they haven't fully looked into,

*AL*

Briggo wrote:

Despite this its still a way of saving a lot of money, you just have to extend the lease for 3 years until the bike is legally yours. "oh no".

Secondly its an interest free no questions asked loan, which you save money on, there isn't a single bad thing about it.
So many drama queens rambling on about something they haven't fully looked into,

Not once did I say it wasn't a good thing, there's still good savings to be made,
it was however a better 'thing' before the recent changes.

Both my road bikes were bought through my employers C2W scheme, also the Mrs as the head of her employers HR dept and as such initially set up and now deals with all their C2W transactions, so I'm possibly better informed than most on the workings of C2W.

Perhaps that's why I despair at all the mouthpieces who can't resist bragging about how they 'bent' the rules to suit their needs,
instead of keeping their head down and enjoying their heavily discounted bike.

Briggo

Wasn't aimed at your goodself Al in that way, but it's still a great thing to use, just makes me laugh how the government changed something by literally just clarifying the final payment amount and everyone started harking on about how that made it rubbish as they saw the 25% figure and never read on any further and extending it 3yrs.

For most the 7/12% won't be far off what they were being charged by their employer before anyway, the guidelines were around 5-15% when I had my old bike before the changes.

Andrew_J_Heard

basically - you wil definately save money whatever you do

my pre tax/pre NI payments over a year wont even match the ammount that i borrowed so your winning big time.

the only thing to look at if you do it year after year is that it will affect your NI payments so in essence affect your state pension. but hey im guessing 30 years down the line when i need a pension there will be no such thing lol

diy

If you are on the kind of income where this reduction in your gross earnings (and therefore tax and NI) takes you below the minimum contribution, then you are almost certainly not going to save money on the scheme at all anyway.