Car allowance payments...

mcg1987

Hi all,

I'm trying to get my head around this car allowance craic mainly.

Story is I've been offered 2 jobs in London both offering basically the same package - say £28000 plus £7000 car allowance.

I want to calculate my take home pay etc. using different online calculators but not sure how to do it so hoping someone could give me pointers.


Should the car allowance get paid to me as a lump sum at the start to get a car, insure it etc? That was how I picked it up from one interview that I'd get 7k - buy a car for between 3-4k then insure and tax it and run it for the year on say 2500...

Do I add the car allowance to my gross salary and calculate based on that total??

I will be repaying a student loan and probably contributing 5% towards a pension (no idea about these either or what's best to do).


I will obviously be speaking with the companies in question over the next few weeks before I move over so I will ask these questions to them as well but just wanted to get an idea in my own head before I speak with them about it.



FYI - I am a Quantity Surveyor currently on the Jobbridge scheme and am due to finish in March but I'm leaving a month early. For all the bad publicity I've seen it getting I would definitely say it has been a great overall experience for me and is definitely the main reason I have been able to secure full-time work now. The experience I've gained has been crucial. Yeah sure the money is pure crap but it's only for 9 months. I made it clear that I would not take the internship if there was no guarantee of a full-time position at the end of it and the guarantee is still there but the job just doesn't agree with me because I'm in the office all day, every day and want to be on site more. Anyone who has any questions about the scheme etc. then feel free to ask.

Cheers

Gmaximum

Car allowance is usually paid monthly and treated as salary for tax and social insurance

mcg1987

Ok so I've got the full offer and yes the car allowance payments were going to be paid in Monthly but I said this would be no use to me when I get over from Ireland as I'll be skint and need something then so they said that's fine we'll just supply you with a car if you'd prefer! I said yeah no problem and got an email confirming this which said they are supplying the car and paying for the fuel as well. I think this sounds great anyway!

But can anyone explain this to me in laymans terms??

How will tax be paid on this?

What age/kind of car should I expect? Should I get a choice of which car?

helimachoptor

mcg1987 wrote: »

Ok so I've got the full offer and yes the car allowance payments were going to be paid in Monthly but I said this would be no use to me when I get over from Ireland as I'll be skint and need something then so they said that's fine we'll just supply you with a car if you'd prefer! I said yeah no problem and got an email confirming this which said they are supplying the car and paying for the fuel as well. I think this sounds great anyway!

But can anyone explain this to me in laymans terms??

How will tax be paid on this?

What age/kind of car should I expect? Should I get a choice of which car?

A friend on mine is a QS based just outside london, he gets 6K (i think) and has a pretty kitted out Insignia with inbuilt sat nav etc, i'd expect something like repmobile but a pretty well specced one.

mcg1987

Funny you should mention Insignia because when I typed company cars into the googlebox here this morning and the Insignia was the one that apparently came out on top and I wouldn't mind one if them! Definitely need a sat-nav over there anyway :P !

Repmobile? will have to look more into this I doubt!

So the car should be nearly brand new if not actually brand new then so?

helimachoptor

Would imagine it will be brand new, they are a popular car (my wife is getting one in the next few weeks aswell) she had quite a few options but wanted the Insignia

You'll be doing a fair amount of mileage i'd say..

mcg1987

Aye sites are all over North London and a few in the south apparently so there'll be plenty of mileage.

They look alright too and had a look at the brochure this morning in more detail and they seem decent. It's this whole way of taxing them that I don't really understand but I'm sure it will come to me.

It wouldn't make any sense for them to give me something that's a few years old unless they actually just give it to me and there's no tax on it! Like I wouldn't mind an older model Passat, A4 or 320d or something along them lines if there was none of this tax to be paid!

Chances of that are slim to none though...I see the boss and the senior surveyor had just recently tool delivery of 2 brand new Mercedes jeeps just before my interview ! I really should have looked more into it when I was there but at that point I thought I'd just be getting an allowance anyway !