Cycle Scheme for over £1000 ?

Dudders29
Dudders29 Posts: 171
edited December 2013 in Road general
Ive found plenty of threads discussing the Cycle Scheme on here but they all seem to discuss the end of hire agreement. Im trying to find out if you can you use the max £1000 voucher as part payment for the bike. Does cycle scheme need to know that the bike your actually purchasing is worth over the £1000 ?

Comments

  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    Officiallly you are not allowed to add to the £1000 (if that is your limit).

    You can go over £1000 if your company has a consumer credit license but whatever the value is that they agree to pay, is intended to be the full value of what you purchase.

    It is a tax saving scheme so anything outside of what I describe above would be fraud.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I think the OP is asking if he can top up the voucher with his own cash, so that would not be fraud would it?
    Lots of places let you do this to varying degrees but its the ownership issue thats the problem.

    Some schemes do not have ownership issues but if your company uses cyclesheme I guess you are stuck with it.
  • letap73
    letap73 Posts: 1,608
    smidsy wrote:
    Officiallly you are not allowed to add to the £1000 (if that is your limit).

    You can go over £1000 if your company has a consumer credit license but whatever the value is that they agree to pay, is intended to be the full value of what you purchase.

    It is a tax saving scheme so anything outside of what I describe above would be fraud.

    http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/info/cyclescheme.php

    Smids, you should report these jokers for fraud then! :lol:
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    Carbonator wrote:
    I think the OP is asking if he can top up the voucher with his own cash, so that would not be fraud would it?
    Lots of places let you do this to varying degrees but its the ownership issue thats the problem.

    Well it's not within the rules but it's hard to see anyone getting done for fraud with it. The taxpayer is actually better off if you go over the limit as there's all that extra VAT to be payed.

    And, whether or not you've gone over the limit, there is also the issue of whether or not you are actually intending to use the bike mainly for commuting.

    In reality, it's hard to see the harm in it.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • mattv
    mattv Posts: 992
    Unless you leave work/ get made redundant during the hire term and have to have the value of the bike assessed or give it back. Who owns what?
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    Carbonator wrote:
    I think the OP is asking if he can top up the voucher with his own cash
    I know and that is what he can not officially do as I said already.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    White collar crime is still crime
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • Southgate
    Southgate Posts: 246
    The tax break automatically cuts off once the £1000 limit is reached, so it's not fraud to exceed it as no-one has been defrauded or suffered any loss. The issue is 'ownership'. Under the scheme, the employer owns the bike. So if you choose to 'top-up' on the quiet, you are adding value to your employer's property without their knowledge and with no agreement from them to take this into account should something go wrong. In practice, I doubt this has ever led to a problem because payments are deducted from wages at source and falling behind is therefore not possible.
    Superstition begins with pinning race number 13 upside down and it ends with the brutal slaughter of Mamils at the cake stop.
  • Dudders29
    Dudders29 Posts: 171
    Thought I'd update ya. I rang Cycle Scheme today and they told me that it's fine to top up a voucher to buy a bike over £1000. They said it wasn't allowed up until August this year but now it's fine to do. I've had this confirmed via email aswell. Can't speak for the other schemes.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    You can do pretty much whatever you like if its Evans Ride to Work scheme because I think they handle the years from 2-5 (or whatever it is) and not the employer.

    Good that cyclescheme allow you to top up now.
    Its a little bit irrelevant as to bike cost and actually using it for commuting anyway IMO.

    I did not get the problem of ownership within the first year either. Surely you just have to pay back the full (without the tax saving) amount.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Dudders29 wrote:
    Thought I'd update ya. I rang Cycle Scheme today and they told me that it's fine to top up a voucher to buy a bike over £1000. They said it wasn't allowed up until August this year but now it's fine to do. I've had this confirmed via email aswell. Can't speak for the other schemes.

    So its officially not a crime or fraud now then :lol:
  • Iamnot Wiggins
    Iamnot Wiggins Posts: 685
    Come & work for us, buy what you like, pay it back. Some people have got some great machines here through the cycle to work scheme!
  • diy
    diy Posts: 6,473
    You can top up the voucher with a cash payment to the shop. But the money is basically lost in the event that you have to hand back the bike. Also you don't get tax, vat saving on the top up.

    At the end of the day you don't have title to the bike until you complete the credit hire. The scheme owner may choose not to extend the right for you to buy the bike at the end and you'd have no right to your residual £500 investment.

    Its not a bad scheme if you are buying a bike anyway and the timing is not linked to peak demand times.
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