BIK on company car when sick

Patjess

hi all. Can I return my company car for a period of 8 weeks whilst sick and not able to drive? Company say I need to keep it but I’m not sure this is right. Anyone know where id find a reference to help me give it back and avoid the BIK? Thanks

namenotavailablE

The Revenue document relating to car BIK rules (reviewed in February 2025, so right up to date) is available here:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax/part-05/05-01-01b.pdf

The general rule is that a BIK charge arises if the car is made available to the employee. That suggests that the owner (i.e. the employer) would have to (agree to) make the car unavailable for the 8 week period.

During the COVID restrictions, there was a treatment allowing for the employer to take back possession of a car (section 9(a) of the document- note that the text in this paragraph rule is described as clarifying the treatment rather than introducing some sort of a concessional treatment; this might mean that the principle of taking back the car is accepted but I can't see this stated elsewhere from a scan of the linked document). There is also a 'no BIK' treatment where the employee is working outside of the state for a part of the year and doesn't have the car available (detailed in section 5.3).