Personal use on Limo/Hackney/Taxi/Bus

tombull82

I was thinking of buying a VW shuttle 9 seater to use for family trips etc but I also commute to Dublin daily (100mile round trip) where there is also 5~6 guys traveling the same route and hrs as me who I could give a shuttle bus style service to. (point A to point B only)

My thoughts are would it be worth my while to register this as a Limo or hackney or bus etc. I know there is more paper work involved and higher insurance etc but maybe that would balance out with lower tax and the writing off of some costs?

Is there any limitations to using it for personal use if I go down the PSV route?


Has anyone any experience with doing something similar?

Thanks

CiniO

tombull82 wrote: »

I was thinking of buying a VW shuttle 9 seater to use for family trips etc but I also commute to Dublin daily (100mile round trip) where there is also 5~6 guys traveling the same route and hrs as me who I could give a shuttle bus style service to. (point A to point B only)

My thoughts are would it be worth my while to register this as a Limo or hackney or bus etc. I know there is more paper work involved and higher insurance etc but maybe that would balance out with lower tax and the writing off of some costs?

Is there any limitations to using it for personal use if I go down the PSV route?


Has anyone any experience with doing something similar?

Thanks

If you tax it as taxi or hackney, tax will be way cheaper (I think below 100 euro) but you won't be legally allowed to use it for personal purposes.

From what you've written, you are mostly going to use it for personal purposes, so I'd say registering it as car would be the best option.
You can still take cash from your passengers commuting with you, provided you don't make a profit on it (f.e. it just covers cost of running the car).
As least that's what most insurers allow for on private policy.

Guy:Incognito

CiniO wrote: »

If you tax it as taxi or hackney, tax will be way cheaper (I think below 100 euro) but you won't be legally allowed to use it for personal purposes.
.

Tax may be cheaper but insurance would but much dearer. At best it might even itself out Id say.

K.Flyer

Information on Taxi / Hackney licence and vehicle requirements...

www.taxi.ie/applying-taxi-license-Dublin.shtml

Story about someone who had a similar idea...

www.taxi.ie/oleary-taxi.shtml

Gumbo

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Tax may be cheaper but insurance would but much dearer. At best it might even itself out Id say.

+1

I have access to this everyday with my family.
I have a 3.0 car.

Tax and insurance privately is 2k. If I put one of my families spare limo licences on it, the tax is €95 but insurance is near €1900.

It wasn't worth it the the extra hassle of paperwork, the tax liabilities (PAYE) CPC courses and the branding of the car etc

CiniO

kceire wrote: »

+1

I have access to this everyday with my family.
I have a 3.0 car.

Tax and insurance privately is 2k. If I put one of my families spare limo licences on it, the tax is €95 but insurance is near €1900.

It wasn't worth it the the extra hassle of paperwork, the tax liabilities (PAYE) CPC courses and the branding of the car etc

CPC courses for driving a taxi / hackney? Are you sure?

mgbgt1978

kceire wrote: »

+1

I have access to this everyday with my family.
I have a 3.0 car.

Tax and insurance privately is 2k. If I put one of my families spare limo licences on it, the tax is €95 but insurance is near €1900.

It wasn't worth it the the extra hassle of paperwork, the tax liabilities (PAYE) CPC courses and the branding of the car etc

There are no Tax liabilities if you don't make any money with this venture.
There are certainly no CPC Courses for a Limo.
There is no branding issue with a Limo (apart from the circular stickers on the front and rear glass) and in fact apart from a discreet use of the firm's name there is no Branding allowed on a Limo.
The only issue is using a PSV-taxed vehicle for private use. While the guards do not seem too concerned with this at the moment, it's probably only a matter of time......

ps. As any PSV licence is issued to a specific car (and must be renewed annually) it's hard to see how your family can have a 'spare' Limo licence. You cannot have a licence without it being tied to a vehicle, which must be NCT'd, etc annually to keep the licence valid.

Del2005

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

There are no Tax liabilities if you don't make any money with this venture.
There are certainly no CPC Courses for a Limo.
There is no branding issue with a Limo (apart from the circular stickers on the front and rear glass) and in fact apart from a discreet use of the firm's name there is no Branding allowed on a Limo.
The only issue is using a PSV-taxed vehicle for private use. While the guards do not seem too concerned with this at the moment, it's probably only a matter of time......

If you don't make a profit you still need to complete a tax return with all your expenses and out goings, that's going to cost a few hundred for an accountant or a lot of time if doing it yourself. Much easier to just get the others to cover fuel for the commute. No need to complete a tax return for that and as said it's now allowed by insurance to receive payment for fuel.

mgbgt1978

^^^My post was directed at kceire and not the Op.
Also a tax return (for a case like this) is quite easy to complete and only takes about 15 minutes

Spook_ie

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

^^^My post was directed at kceire and not the Op.
Also a tax return (for a case like this) is quite easy to complete and only takes about 15 minutes

You still have to provide an extract of accounts showing operating costs against payments recieved, also it can often fall to an individual SGS operative as to whether a vehicle will classify as a limosine as it says " Just because it's black doesn't make it a limosine"

Regarding tax returns, that may well be but expect much closer scrutiny on any returns that don't show an operating profit and therefore a tax/prsi/usc liability.




EDIT There is also the matter that you will need a drivers PSV license for an area, limosine driving would be allowable on any area as you have to prebook a limosine ( another record to keep BTW )

http://www.nationaltransport.ie/taxi-and-bus-licensing/ START HERE BUT CHECK THESE SPECIFICLY

http://www.nationaltransport.ie/taxi-and-bus-licensing/taxi/spsv-vehicle-licensing/apply-for-an-spsv-vehicle-licence/

http://www.nationaltransport.ie/taxi-and-bus-licensing/taxi/spsv-vehicle-licensing/required-documents-for-vehicle-licensing/

http://www.nationaltransport.ie/taxi-and-bus-licensing/taxi/spsv-driver-licensing/

K.Flyer

In other words, at the end of the day, if the boss of RyanAir Michael OLeary could not get away with it, you most likely will not either.

mickdw

Who said Michael o leary couldn't get away with it?.

K.Flyer

mickdw wrote: »

Who said Michael o leary couldn't get away with it?.

http://www.taxi.ie/oleary-taxi.shtml

Did they not close the loophole?

If my memory is correct he originally just bought a car and registered it as a taxi, when it came to light what he was up to he then bought a taxi company to get around the problem.

CiniO

There's always even easier way to be allowed on bus lanes - buy a bus.

mickdw

K.Flyer wrote: »

http://www.taxi.ie/oleary-taxi.shtml

Did they not close the loophole?

Well that's a 2005 article. O leary last year sold on a 2007 s class which he had used a taxi \ limo since new and it had crazy mileage on it.
He also used the s class to travel to meetings with government a few years back so I would assume they didn't manage to stop him. That said he did have a driver so ?

K.Flyer

I know it was a while ago, and he had bent the rules, something to do with the driver set up if I remember, but buying the taxi company did take the focus away from him.