Insurance and EV charger installation paid for by company - BIK for tax?

[bangtidy]

Due to collect M3P tomorrow so am currently sorting insurance.

Car is on a lease paid for through my own company so I'll be taxed on it as a benefit in kind. The car will only be used by me for SD&P with commuting, no real business use.

Am I correct in thinking though that I can have the company pay for the EV charger installation and my insurance on the car without it also being taxed as a benefit in kind?

I've googled it a bit and haven't really found any definitive answer.

Thanks!

 

[hmy7k]

The insurance is a cost to the company of running the vehicle so yes its company expense, no BIK.

I am pretty sure there is no BIK on a company fitted charge point so long as its to charge the company owned car.

 

[bangtidy]

Great, thanks for the feedback.

 

[curmudgeon]

Insurance, yes, company can pay for it without any tax hit, except reducing your corporation tax . My accountant did say that he wanted the insurance invoice to be in the company name but insurance companies may be reluctant to do this. I can't see HMRC challenging the insurance invoiced to the keeper of the vehicle if different to the company name.

The p11d value for BIK purposes is what it is, the final invoice value as the gross amount before the 3.5k plug in grant.

Home charger tax free? I think so but I haven't checked this with my accountant so would welcome some input from someone who knows whether the company can pay for a charger to be installed at home without any BIK.

Interestingly, electricity is not classified as a fuel for BIK purposes but claiming it is tricky because the charger must be at your place of work to qualify and electricity paid directly by the company, not claimed back as an expense. Claiming back the cost of the electricity not worth the hassle for me.

 

[bangtidy]

Yeah, I don't think there's any way to claim back the electricity used to charge the car at home. Unfortunately, I'm not able to install a charge at work otherwise I would!

 

[hmy7k]

You can claim 4p per business mile if you charge at home under HMRC rules on a company owned vehicle to cover the cost of electricity.

Not really worth the bother unless you do a lot of business miles.

 

[Jason71]

The OLEV grant application says:
"Under the scheme the government funds up to 75% of the cost of a home chargepoint and associated equipment as well as the cost of installation. Usually the remaining cost should be met by the customer. However, there may be circumstances when other 3rd parties offer to meet this cost such as vehicle manufacturers, energy companies or chargepoint manufacturers. If you are not contributing the total amount of the remaining cost of the chargepoint please describe how this is being covered"
Based on this I was not sure if your company paying it would be an issue?

The charge point itself would apparently be OK:
"
Whilst excluding electricity from the definition of fuel can cause administrative problems regarding the reimbursement of business mileage, there are some benefits. In particular, s149(4) ITEPA 2003 extends the exclusion from the car fuel charge to any ‘facility or means for supplying electrical energy’. This means that an employer can, for example, pay for the following without a taxable benefit arising:

• A vehicle charging point to be installed at the employee’s home"