Cycle to Work Scheme - number of bikes....

[TheDoctor]

For reference, I'd get the benefit anyway - but it would be reduced rather than going entirely. Overall it means I get about £200 extra child benefit over the C2W 18 month period I'd have lost. Just because the government decided to introduce income-based child benefit limits, and then move them.

Does it harm us all? Maybe, maybe not. I'd have not bought the bike, so it's VAT revenue contributed which wouldn't have been. I'll have an end contribution which goes to the government as well = more VAT.

We're paying for it yes. Is it moral? I'd put the point that I'm bunging a fair amount of tax into George Osborne's account, which I don't compain about doing. I could shove it via an offshore account or similar dodgy investments, but a) I wouldn't and b) there's not enough left with two kids and trying to pay off a mortgage ASAP.

You make it sound like the Chancellor gets it to spend on holidays!
Sorry, this is sounding like an attack on you, and I'm not meaning it to be. If we comply with the law as it stands, then we're certainly not legally in the wrong. As for morality, well, I'm just asking questions - I don't really have any answers.

 

[DCLane]

Sorry, this is sounding like an attack on you, and I'm not meaning it to be. If we comply with the law as it stands, then we're certainly not legally in the wrong. As for morality, well, I'm just asking questions - I don't really have any answers.

No problem. I agree that the system is not good. C2W has been mis-used by many people, which is why they changed it.

There are so few methods to reduce tax left after Married Persons / MIRA / etc. went I'm using C2W as the last-chance saloon.

 

[srw]

You forgot the option - zero: my employer offers it but I've never needed a new commuting bike at the right time of year.

 

[Sara_H]

I got a Specialised Myka Elite last year - I wanted to get a Boardman Fi Hybrid this year but the scheme my employer uses doesn't deal with Halfords

 

[Andrew_Culture]

That's a piss poor excuse from your employer. I'm the only one using our scheme, my boss likes the fact it saves him money, he also likes looking out his office window at my bike.

Ah, now if he knew it saves him money... We talked about it yesterday and he's not utterly against the idea, in fact he said it would act as quite a nice employee perk, a bit like a pension.

So how can being part of the scheme save my employer money?

 

[Norm]

Briefly, he doesn't have to pay tax or NI on your sacrificed salary.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

You forgot the option - zero: my employer offers it but I've never needed a new commuting bike at the right time of year.

This is true....

but what is it with employers who insist on 'windows'

(or bike owners without sheds or garages to stash a new bike in until needed )

 

[GrumpyGregry]

the money being used could be better spent on those that actually need it.

as opposed to trident missiles and pointless foreign wars?

 

[srw]

This is true....

but what is it with employers who insist on 'windows'

It's about offering a comprehensive flexible benefits package involving salary sacrifice, needing to outsource the adminstration of the whole shebang and (I'm told) the taxman insisting that some of the options are only optionable once a year or at a major life event.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Briefly, he doesn't have to pay tax or NI on your sacrificed salary.

I seem to have a very dull-brained morning - by 'sacrificed salary' do you mean the amount I pay back monthly for the bike? If so then me buying a Boardman Road Race bike and paying back £50ish quid a month would save my employer roughly £120 a year?

 

[marinyork]

as opposed to trident missiles and pointless foreign wars?

It's a bit odd you would say this point as if you talked to some other cyclists out there you might find a thread of opinion (you might call this uneducated) that supported an expansion of the principle and actual spending of money in some cases to further it. But they still don't like the scheme how it is currently constituted and some would bin it. All or nothing kind of thing. Of course many aren't aware of the scheme at all.

 

[Norm]

I seem to have a very dull-brained morning - by 'sacrificed salary' do you mean the amount I pay back monthly for the bike? If so then me buying a Boardman Road Race bike and paying back £50ish quid a month would save my employer roughly £120 a year?

Technically, you don't pay monthly for the bike, you agree to foregoing an amount from your salary, essentially taking a pay cut of a specific amount for a specific period to rent their bike.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's about offering a comprehensive flexible benefits package involving salary sacrifice, needing to outsource the adminstration of the whole shebang and (I'm told) the taxman insisting that some of the options are only optionable once a year or at a major life event.

It is an endless source of fascination to me the way Finance and HR departments always manage to obtain magic up external advice which reinforces what they think the status quo is and should be, even though other Finance and HR departments in other organisations, who do things differently, are able to magic up their own advice to the contrary supporting their alternative position!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's a bit odd you would say this point as if you talked to some other cyclists out there you might find a thread of opinion (you might call this uneducated) that supported an expansion of the principle and actual spending of money in some cases to further it. But they still don't like the scheme how it is currently constituted and some would bin it. All or nothing kind of thing. Of course many aren't aware of the scheme at all.

I'm well aware there is a spectrum of opinion on the matter, I work and live amongst deeply ingrained Toryboys for whom shiny new weapons of mass murder and the prosecution of pointless wars are as essential in maintaining an erection as their dose of Viagra!

 

[aJohnson]

None, I'm a student.