Car Expenses

panda100

Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of advice on a work issue I am having at the moment.

I work for a charity organisation.My job involves me being out and about a lot driving in my car. A day doesn't go by where I'm not driving or collecting one of my clients from somewhere, and I cover the whole Dublin region. I get petrol expenses at the end of the month. I have been honest with my mileage up until recently,but it is not at all covering the petrol I use per month.

Since I have started my job the quality of my car has detoriated rapidly. Since December it has been in the garage every month. I am spending on average €150/month maintaining it. I drove a client to a social welfare office in Tallaght, and when we came out from our appointment the two mirrors had been smashed and outer casing broken. I mentioned this to my HR manager and she said that with the cutbacks in the HSE they wouldn't have the money to pay for it.

It is at the stage where I am losing a lot of my salary to maintaining my car because of all the driving I am doing for work. My role is a new position in our organisation and there is no formal company policy on car damages etc through work.

I am just looking for some advice on how to proceed with this? Am I entitled to damages to my car while it was being used for work?

Opticom

panda100 wrote: »

Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of advice on a work issue I am having at the moment.

I work for a HSE funded charity organisation.My job involves me being out and about a lot driving in my car. A day doesn't go by where I'm not driving or collecting one of my clients from somewhere, and I cover the whole Dublin region. I get petrol expenses at the end of the month. I have been honest with my mileage up until recently,but it is not at all covering the petrol I use per month. I have started adding on significant number of miles to cover what I am spending on petrol.

Since I have started my job the quality of my car has detoriated rapidly. Since December it has been in the garage every month. I am spending on average €150/month maintaining it. I drove a client to a social welfare office in Tallaght, and when we came out from our appointment the two mirrors had been smashed and outer casing broken. I mentioned this to my HR manager and she said that with the cutbacks in the HSE they wouldn't have the money to pay for it.

It is at the stage where I am losing a lot of my salary to maintaining my car because of all the driving I am doing for work. My role is a new position in our organisation and there is no formal company policy on car damages etc through work.

I am just looking for some advice on how to proceed with this? Am I entitled to damages to my car while it was being used for work?

Usually not, as most jobs where you can claim travel also require you to have car insurance that covers you for work trips. You're right, travel expenses are usually a type of fools gold when you factor in fuel costs today, extra wear and tear, and depreciation on your car due to the higher mileage. Do not add on any miles, that would be a sacking offence if anyone notices, and over time they will.

You should be on roughly the following mileage rates :

http://www.taxation.ie/guide-to-irish-tax/motor-expenses/

Most private companies use very similar rates to the above as well, as in order to claim full tax back on travel expenses.

If you're on less than the above rates, ask the HSE for a copy of their rates (which should be very simlar to the ones above) and ask why you're not on the same.

Bandana boy

I would probably remove the details of you defrauding your employer in a post which names your employer and an incident that can identify you

panda100

Opticom wrote: »

You should be on roughly the following mileage rates :

http://www.taxation.ie/guide-to-irish-tax/motor-expenses/

Most private companies use very similar rates to the above as well, as in order to claim full tax back on travel expenses.

If you're on less than the above rates, ask the HSE for a copy of their rates (which should be very simlar to the ones above) and ask why you're not on the same.

Thanks for that.Will look that up tommorow and see what the rates are. It's a start anyways.

Honey-ec

Opticom wrote: »

You should be on roughly the following mileage rates :

http://www.taxation.ie/guide-to-irish-tax/motor-expenses/

Most private companies use very similar rates to the above as well, as in order to claim full tax back on travel expenses.

Ah, if only! Mileage rate in my company is a flat 12c per kilometre regardless of engine size or distance travelled.

Opticom

Honey-ec wrote: »

Ah, if only! Mileage rate in my company is a flat 12c per kilometre regardless of engine size or distance travelled.

You're being screwed so, that won't even cover the cost of fuel. I wouldn't mind but up to the standard rates they can deduct the travel they pay you off their tax bill, so basically they are paying you feck all mileage in order to give it to the government in taxes instead. If that's all they think of the employees that make them wealthy, and who they earn off the backs of, it doesn't say a lot.

Bandana boy

Honey-ec wrote: »

Ah, if only! Mileage rate in my company is a flat 12c per kilometre regardless of engine size or distance travelled.

unless you have a car allowance that seems very low ,but about right if you do get a car allowance

Honey-ec

Nope, that's without car allowance. I nearly choked when I joined and realised how low it is. It was 59c per km in my last job. Thankfully I don't have to do a lot of business mileage.

Eoin

Wow, so you'd need to be getting around 37mpg just to break even on fuel costs alone?

Bandana boy

Honey-ec wrote: »

Nope, that's without car allowance. I nearly choked when I joined and realised how low it is. It was 59c per km in my last job. Thankfully I don't have to do a lot of business mileage.

That sounds like a mistake
I would double check it -I know in my place we have two rates €0.14 for those with an allowance and €0.51 for those without -I wonder if somebody assumed you had an allowance when telling you €0.12.
I know i would refuse to drive my own(if completely self funded)car for that rate.

dev100

That's madness !!! Are you properly insured for work purposes? You d want to be careful if you aint. Id know what I'd be doing . Simple solution don't drive your car for work use that way it wont cost you !!!

Eoin

dev100 wrote: »

That's madness !!! Are you properly insured for work purposes? You d want to be careful if you aint. !!!

Yeah, good point. I think it's called class 2 insurance if you're doing anything more than driving to or from work?

dev100

Eoin wrote: »

Yeah, good point. I think it's called class 2 insurance if you're doing anything more than driving to or from work?

I don't know the name of it myself but because of my previous jobs insurance companies have asked that question. The fact you receive money from the job as an allowance puts an employee at greater risk Your company is putting all the risk on you if anything happens .

panda100

dev100 wrote: »

Are you properly insured for work purposes

I had to give a letter from my insurance company to my employer stating that my car was insured for work purposes. I think this may have even pushed my insurance costs up a bit.


Looked up my mileage today and I get 23.55 cent per mile, so a good bit less than the civil service rates. I am easily doing 100km/60 miles a week going here there and everywhere.So getting around €13 per week for my mileage.

I really do like my job and my employers, and don't want to kick up a huge fuss about this. When I started my job about a year ago, I was so keen and eager to make a good impression that I didn't even bother questioning my mileage costs etc. However, I feel that I won't be able to do my job in a month's time as my car will be on the scrapheap.
I am not a very confrontational person, and feel embarrassed addressing this at a time when all HSE funded organisation are struggling financially. However, it is becoming almost financially unviable for me to continue working in this job, as I am spending significant chunks of my salary on petrol,car maintenance etc.

Any advice on how to approach this professionally would be much appreciated?