self employed bikes4work

sarb54

Hi there,
I'm new to boards so this question has probably been asked already but i'm wondering where does the bikes4work scheme fit in for self employed people? I'm a keen cyclist and was wondering can i benefit from it or do you have to have employees etc..

any help would be greatly received.

sarb54

captain P

Hi sarb,

According to this

Your employer has to be willing to run the scheme before you can get your bike. This is because the scheme can only run through what is known as a salary sacrifice, where you agree to temporarily reduce your wages to pay for the hire of goods – in this case a bike and equipment. The scheme is available to Republic of Ireland tax payers who pay PRSI. Please note that the self-employed cannot take part in the scheme.

Doesn't look likely

petethedrummer

If you have an Ltd. you can.

RoundTower

can you not just treat it as a business expense/capital investment with no need for the bike to work scheme? I'm sure someone in another forum would know the answer to this straight away.

Beasty

petethedrummer wrote: »

If you have an Ltd. you can.

If you are an employee or director of a limited company, you are technically not self-employed.

If you run a business, but not through a limited company, you are self-employed, and cannot qualify for the scheme. If you have your own employees though, the scheme can be operated for them

Basically the scheme only applies to people within the PAYE system

Toblerone1978

RoundTower wrote: »

can you not just treat it as a business expense/capital investment with no need for the bike to work scheme? I'm sure someone in another forum would know the answer to this straight away.

The bike to work scheme is based on the fact that you would be using the bike to cycle to work. It's very much established in tax case law that costs incurred in getting to and from work are not business expense.

Basically he/she would need to prove to the Revenue that he use the bike for work purposes and unless he is a bike courier, that could be very difficult thing to do.

However if you already have a PAYE system going, it might be worth your while considering putting a close relative, e.g. a spouse, and apply the bike scheme to them. If you don't have a PAYE system already up and running (i.e. have existing employees), I wouldn't touch the idea, any money saved will be spend on accountants!

sarb54

thanks for that everyone. typical for the aul self employed people..... its true though how would i prove i use the bike to get, to and from work, even though i do! cheers everyone.

studiorat

Guess you might need a bike to do deliveries on then!

As long as the bike doesn't cost mad money I'd happily put it down as capital.

I've never had to "prove" anything to the revenue. As far as I'm concerned they will have to prove it to me...