Bike to Work Scheme

FX Meister

Have we got anything like this in Ireland? http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/
Friend of mine told me about it as he just got a new bike in the UK using it. He gets the cost taken out of his wages over a defined period less the Vat and a further 10%. Thats over a quarter of the price!!! Surely if the government were serious about getting cars off the road they could do this here?

Raam

Nope, ain't anything like it here, AFAIK.
Would be nice though.

blorg

It's better than that- the money is taken _before_ income tax too; the total discount is over 50% if you are in the higher tax bracket. We really should lobby for similar to come in here what with the Greens in government.

marathonic

I'm working in Northern Ireland.. The way the scheme with my employer works is as follows:

We select any bike up to a value of 1000 pounds (I selected a fully carbon, dura-ace equipped Planet X at 999 pounds (about 1250 euro)),

We get the bike without paying the VAT and pay for it monthly out of our pre-tax, pre-national-insurance salary,

The bike ends up costing me a total of 50 pounds per month over a year.

Unfortunately, I've never heard of anything similar in the South.

Bicyclegadabout

In some Dáil debate it was said that there was no such scheme in the Republic and no particular plans to implement one, though it looked like a nice idea. Can't find the link to it now unfortunately.
But PAYE workers can avail of a benefit in kind tax credit to the value of €250. That's about the best you can do.

Hungrycol

But isn't there something about your employer (or the Government) decides to operate the scheme in conjunction with? A lot of employers go with Halfords meaning you can only select your bike there.

kenmc

marathonic wrote: »

(I selected a fully carbon, dura-ace equipped Planet X at 999 pounds (about 1250 euro))

jeez thats a bit nice for commuting. How often is it 'broken' and you have to take the ould runabout in?

blorg

Hungrycol wrote: »

But isn't there something about your employer (or the Government) decides to operate the scheme in conjunction with? A lot of employers go with Halfords meaning you can only select your bike there.

Unfortunately yes, although there are alternatives. Previously Halfords would order in Planet X or Focus but there was a bit of a breakdown over that recently I believe.

kona

thats because halfords are the only shop with the procedure in place, afaik its kinda complicated, but you do get the bike quite cheap.

i dont see the problem with halfords, probably the best shop to gt it from

afaik they supply, kona, van nichlous, GT, Dawes, Rocky mountain, PlanetX, carrera, boardman, saracen.

im sure they can get more brands, not many bike shops in ireland can get that stuff, and none rocky mountain.

blorg

Some good reading on it over at Bike Radar. Planet X's take on it is that Halfords tied up a lot of companies with a promise to source any bike available and then when realised they weren't making any money on the likes of the Focus Cayo or Planet X and started refusing to source these bikes. The scheme is a government initiative and as such it is your company's choice to tie themselves to Halfords, certainly that is not mandatory.

I'd certainly welcome such a scheme here although I'm all biked up at the moment! I guess I don't have a MTB or TT bike though

aburke

FX Meister wrote: »

Surely if the government were serious about getting cars off the road they could do this here?

<rant>
The 'government' or more specifically , road engineers, couldn't care less about cyclists.
Cyclists are seen as obstacles to be removed, not something to facilitate.
Same goes for Pedestrians, Busses, Trams : anything but cars...

More cars... it's all about the car.

<end rant>

marathonic

kenmc wrote: »

jeez thats a bit nice for commuting. How often is it 'broken' and you have to take the ould runabout in?

yeah, there's been a bit of a problem with the starter lately and i've had te take my old commutter in...

marathonic

Hungrycol wrote: »

But isn't there something about your employer (or the Government) decides to operate the scheme in conjunction with? A lot of employers go with Halfords meaning you can only select your bike there.

its up to the employer. some employers go with the Halfords scheme for handiness - as one cheque handles the whole order. other companies, such as the one i work for, allow you to order from anywhere and they'll write a cheque to that company.

run_Forrest_run

that's a good idea, why don't the Greens put their efforts into something like this while still in Government instead of the crazy carbon tax rules..

AFC_1903

Bicyclegadabout wrote: »

But PAYE workers can avail of a benefit in kind tax credit to the value of €250. That's about the best you can do.

Any idea where you can get info about this online? I'd never heard about this....

yop

AFC_1903 wrote: »

Any idea where you can get info about this online? I'd never heard about this....

Same as that, V interesting

blorg

I _think_ Bicyclegadabout is a bit off on the BIK issue - AFAIK your employer can supply you with a bike valued at under €250 without you incurring a BIK liability. That's about it folks, nothing to get excited about. reference

spurscormac

blorg wrote: »

I _think_ Bicyclegadabout is a bit off on the BIK issue - AFAIK your employer can supply you with a bike valued at under €250 without you incurring a BIK liability. That's about it folks, nothing to get excited about. reference

My workplace has provision in place whereby I can spend up to €635 on a variety of things, bike, commuting travel receipts, PC, printer, sports club membership etc.
I can then submit a claim against this whereby I get a set amount back from the taxman, as its considered BIK.

I'm not sure if this is widely available or just something my company provides, but I think thats what is being suggested.

Bicyclegadabout

I tried looking for it when I posted, and I've tried looking for it now but to no avail.
I didn't expect the post to raise such rabid intrigue.


As I recall, a green party guy asked the relevant FF minister if there were any plans to introduce a plan like the UK one here. The minister replied no, but you can get tax free BIK up to €250. That's all I remember.

So, maybe I read it wrong. Maybe it was a very old webpage. I don't know. Could be anything. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Hungrycol

It's called the small benefit exemption and can be used only once each tax year of €249 or less (€250 becomes taxable). It can only be applied once also, meaning if your employer gives you voucher for €100 that's your small benefit exemption used up in its entirety for the remainder of the tax year. Also if your employer gives you a, say, €255 voucher the full €255 is taxable not just the €5 above. It can't be cash either.

Never heard of the €635 mentioned a few posts back. Sounds like a flex benefit system. Bus&Rail tickets are tax free but getting tax back on the other stuff sound dubious. Likely there’s a bit more too it.

Essentially that's it. There really no room for manoeuvre when it comes to tax avoidance. You'll just have to phone your Aunt Mary in the UK and ask her to avail of the bike to work scheme in her company and ship it over.

(Now that I think of... funny how employers providing Bus & Rail Monthly tickets are tax free for the commuter (employee) of those means, likewise employers provided car parking is also tax free for commuters (employees) of that kind. Whereas us cyclists can't even get a helmet tax free! Ho Hum the country we live in, tut - Democracy me ar*e – Rant over)

unionman

It seems such a beautifully simple and logical scheme. It'd never work here:D

More seriously, news today that exchequer revenue is down due to lower than expected VAT returns (which must in turn be due to the dip in house sales and consumer confidence), suggests to me that the Minister for Finance and his advisers will all be sticking huge wads of cotton wool in their ears if anyone suggests an initiative whereby bikes can be VAT exempted under such a scheme.

I think the price of petrol is going to put a lot more bicycles on the road this year. That's the only real incentive going.

blorg

unionman wrote: »

More seriously, news today that exchequer revenue is down due to lower than expected VAT returns (which must in turn be due to the dip in house sales and consumer confidence), suggests to me that the Minister for Finance and his advisers will all be sticking huge wads of cotton wool in their ears if anyone suggests an initiative whereby bikes can be VAT exempted under such a scheme.

It would be an absolute drop in the ocean of tax revenues; there is no way it would have an impact worth worrying over from that point of view. But it would certainly potentially promote cycling.

Bicyclegadabout

Hungrycol wrote: »

(Now that I think of... funny how employers providing Bus & Rail Monthly tickets are tax free for the commuter (employee) of those means, likewise employers provided car parking is also tax free for commuters (employees) of that kind. Whereas us cyclists can't even get a helmet tax free! Ho Hum the country we live in, tut - Democracy me ar*e – Rant over)

Cyclists get VAT free parking, indeed they get completely free parking. [/devil's advocate]

Hungrycol

Bicyclegadabout wrote: »

Cyclists get VAT free parking, indeed they get completely free parking. [/devil's advocate]

But it's not a tax free perk provided by the employer to cycle commuters unlike perks for other types of commuters. (devils advocate advocate)

blorg

Hungrycol wrote: »

But it's not a tax free perk provided by the employer to cycle commuters unlike perks for other types of commuters. (devils advocate advocate)

This is true, and besides, cyclists often have problems with (safe) parking (not me, I'm a lucky one and have showers to go with it.)

rotharrage

hi

To follow up this old thread: With prompting from the Green Party the government have just introduced a €1000 tax relief for employers who buy bikes for their employees. In most cases the money will be recouped from the employees through a salary sacrifice. So employees save 47% if they're on the higher rate or 26% on the lower rate.

www.biketowork.ie are offering a similar service to www.cyclescheme.co.uk. If you're company's signed up with them you can pick a bike from any of their partner shops and they'll invoice your company and sort out the admin.

Best way to get around the bus strike.

Ciao
rotharrage