Wouldn't a better C2W scheme be if you bought a bike for commuting on and sent the receipt to the tax office who then adjusted your tax code to take that expenditure into account. Am I missing something or is that just too simple, all this faffing around with vouchers and not actually owning the bike yourself malarkey could be avoided.
There would have to be a set limit on how often you could do this, say every 3 years or so for each individual but it would remove a lot of the paperwork and for people like me who have never worked for a company that operates a C2W scheme but have cycled to work every day for the past 30 years enable us to get the same income tax breaks as people who do have access to the schemes.
I have actually been cycling to work for longer than that but from 1981-1985 owned a series of generally ratty old unreliable motorcycles and rode those to work on the days when they:
- Started in the morning.
- Hadn't seized up/holed a piston, (my RD 250c's particular favourite but it did have K&Ns and expansion pipes)
- Been stolen by some scrote overnight
- Had it's handlebars, footrests and exhaust stolen by some scrote (they had tried to nick the bike but couldn't cut through my new mahoosive chain/padlock)
- Been 'stacked' by me in a (probably alcohol induced) bout of Barry Sheene impersonation.
But since 1985 I have owned no vehicles other than bicycles (or now Tricycles) and I do detest catching Busses.
