C2W-How much work involved from an employers point of view

[PastyPower]

Afternoon folks

My commute is about to go from 8 miles a day to 20, quite looking forward to this, Winter months might be a pain but at least i'll keep fit. Trouble is I only have the one bike and since this gets used on the club run on Sunday I fear the extra miles will start taking its toll on the bike. So lets get the Cycle2work scheme set up and I can get an upgrade while im at it!!! Well I put it to my 2 person HR department and what with our impending move (location not confirmed yet) and lack of man hours, they put it on hold. That was also the answer I got this time last year btw!!!:-( To busy implementing pointless online appraisal forms!

So, im going to get a few facts together and resubmit my proposition...

Did you set your scheme up at work and how long did it take you, roughly of course?
How time consuming is it to maintain?
Is it a ballache to account for the tax/vat implications?
Is the work/benefit to the employer increased if 1 or 10 people take up the scheme?
Does my HR team really have to get involved?

I have tried selling the scheme and you'd think a HR team were clued up on the benefits of having fit staff so either the future of the business is not as certain as I think or im being fobbed off because it doesn't appeal to them as motorists? Or perhaps they just havent bothered to look into it properly!

Any HR/Acountants out there with any ammo for me?

Thanks PP

 

[DrSquirrel]

I'll tell you one thing - many companies already handle salary sacrifice schemes else where already. Try and find out if they already do it and kind of use that as ammo against the "too much hassle" to setup quarm.

Find out if you have a business travel plan - usually it will hark on about sustainable transport - refer to that.

It's not hard at all to account for taxation - after all they have to adjust it every time your pay changes and all that, mostly "automated" theses days but accountants don't like to admit that.

Benefits will increase with amount of users of course, because the time setting up is shared - granted it shouldn't take much time at all for reasonably competent accountants.

 

[Norm]

1. Did you set your scheme up at work and how long did it take you, roughly of course?
2. How time consuming is it to maintain?
3. Is it a ballache to account for the tax/vat implications?
4. Is the work/benefit to the employer increased if 1 or 10 people take up the scheme?
5. Does my HR team really have to get involved?

1. Yes and about 3 hours, most of which was re-drafting the scheme rules into the company's format. I found various sets of basic scheme rules and draft documentation on line, updated them for changes in legislation and revisions in HMRC's guidances, stuck them in the company's template and submitted it for approval. 2 phone calls to the Group CFO later and it was done.
2. To maintain what? There need be no maintenance. My company's policy was to only capitalise "assets" over £1,000 anyway, so the bikes were written off on purchase and there was no asset register required. There was nothing to maintain.
3. No. For the purchase, you process the invoice like any other purchase invoice subject to your company's approval matrix. For the salary sacrifice, this is almost certainly set up already with your payroll provider, you should only need to tell them the monthly amount being sacrificing and for how long.
4. No, but the employer makes about 40% of the purchase price. This is made up of the VAT reclaimed, the reduction in the employer's NI and the lump sum charged if the bike is sold at the end of the loan period.
5. That depends on your organisation's structure. HR didn't get involved at my last place, because there was no HR and the administration was all down to the finance team. HR may need to be involved for the salary sacrifice, for logging the details of who has what bike, the value of the bike, the accessories which were included, to log how many bikes you have, to record the loan period, the start and end dates etc but that's down to your organisation.

 

[Lizban]

It's a pain in ar*e but worth it.

For a non cyclsit the default will be a flat no.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

what norm says. mind out if you're at a not-for-profit as the VAT situation can be totally different totally from that in VAT registered commercial enterprises.

of course if your HR are bureacratically minded they can turn it into a right pita.