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Bike to Work scheme - the Megathread - Read post #1 before posting

Beasty

Firstly this thread is not about which bike should you get under the BTW scheme – there are too many variables to try and cover this in a single thread. It is to provide a summary of the scheme, some do’s and don’ts and act as a single thread for all technical aspects of the scheme.

Any new threads created covering the rules and application of the scheme will either be locked or transferred to this thread. Please ensure you review the whole thread before posting a new query

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LollipopJimmy

jos28 wrote: »

I can't see why employers think that voucher companies make the scheme easier. All they have to do is transfer the funds directly to the bike shop (following receipt of quotation), set the repayments up in your payroll system and that's it. It gives the buyer a lot more purchasing power. I'm sure most bike shops would rather give discount to their customers than pay 10% commission to a voucher company.

Each new vendor to larger companies usually requires a lot of admin, that's where the one4all shower of bastards people come in. It's a complete rip for the bike stores

El Vino

Slightly different I'm in the UK but I convinced my company to operate it directly but they would only deal with one bike shop. Luckily that bike shop was a Cube, Marin and Specialized dealer so they had a good range. Bike shop gave staff 15% off retail as long as company paid by Bank Transfer before bike was collected. Worked great until one pain is the ass kept kicking off that he had to have a certain bike they didn't stock. Then HR took over the scheme from Finance and handed it to a voucher company.

cave_dweller

Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice please. I picked out a bike + accessories from a store in Dublin City in early June and then applied for the voucher through the cycle to work scheme and got it (it’s done through Travelhub) within a few days. I gave the shop a call and was told it would take a week and a bit for the bike to arrive.... and I still have no bike. It’s been 5+ weeks now and they keep messing me around. Each week I’m told I’ll have it the following week etc.

Is there anyway I can use my voucher at another store? Or anything I can do here?

The delay is annoying but the bad service has irritated me more than anything.

Thanks!

TychoCaine

cave_dweller wrote: »

Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice please. I picked out a bike + accessories from a store in Dublin City in early June and then applied for the voucher through the cycle to work scheme and got it (it’s done through Travelhub) within a few days. I gave the shop a call and was told it would take a week and a bit for the bike to arrive.... and I still have no bike. It’s been 5+ weeks now and they keep messing me around. Each week I’m told I’ll have it the following week etc.

Is there anyway I can use my voucher at another store? Or anything I can do here?

The delay is annoying but the bad service has irritated me more than anything.

Thanks!

It depends on the scheme. One scheme in particular gives you a Pre-paid Visa card that you could buy a washing machine with if you wanted.

5 weeks isn’t crazy though. Brexit is causing a lot of retailers to switch away from UK based distributors, messing up supply chains. On top of that, the 2020 models are coming into stock next month, so it can be tricky getting the old models from the manufacturer.

TheShow

cave_dweller wrote: »

Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice please. I picked out a bike + accessories from a store in Dublin City in early June and then applied for the voucher through the cycle to work scheme and got it (it’s done through Travelhub) within a few days. I gave the shop a call and was told it would take a week and a bit for the bike to arrive.... and I still have no bike. It’s been 5+ weeks now and they keep messing me around. Each week I’m told I’ll have it the following week etc.

Is there anyway I can use my voucher at another store? Or anything I can do here?

The delay is annoying but the bad service has irritated me more than anything.

Thanks!

Check with your employer I guess.
Is the voucher transferrable to other retailers?
In the eyes of the BTW Scheme I don't think it matters who the retailer is as long as they are tax compliant etc.

It just boils down to whether you can use the existing voucher in another retailer or if you have to go through the process again. Only your employer/HR will know that.

TheMilkyPirate

Hi lads I applied for cycle to work in my workplace over 4 months ago and I ky received my voucher last week due to hold ups. The bike I originally wanted is no longer for sale and I don't fancy anything else in Halfords.

The voucher I received is a one4all single use collection card. Can I use this in another bike shop or is it tied to Halfords??

Agent_47

TheMilkyPirate wrote: »

Hi lads I applied for cycle to work in my workplace over 4 months ago and I ky received my voucher last week due to hold ups. The bike I originally wanted is no longer for sale and I don't fancy anything else in Halfords.

The voucher I received is a one4all single use collection card. Can I use this in another bike shop or is it tied to Halfords??

A one4all voucher or card can be used in shops other than Halford or the place you got the quote. Did same myself 3 months ago after checking

magicbastarder

i've deleted a few posts about abusing the scheme; for the record, you're not allowed sell your tax allowance to anyone else and using it to buy anything other than a bike is fraud

lizzylad84

Apologies if there's already a thread for this. Possibly a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string" question, but how can I calculate bike to work scheme replayments?
The company I work for request weekly repayments over a 10 month period, sobis it simply the ammount (1000)Ã· weekly repayments over the 10 months (4Ã—10).

grogi

lizzylad84 wrote: »

Apologies if there's already a thread for this. Possibly a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string" question, but how can I calculate bike to work scheme replayments?
The company I work for request weekly repayments over a 10 month period, sobis it simply the ammount (1000)Ã· weekly repayments over the 10 months (4Ã—10).

BTW is calculated before tax. So your 100 repayment will really cost you much less, even 49 if you're on the 51% marginal tax rate.

lizzylad84

Ok, thanks for the information. The HR Dept where I am know nothing about it.

cdaly_

There's a megathread over that way. If HR know nothing about it, do your own research into how it works and advise them. Otherwise there's a risk that they'll sign up with a "Bike to Work" voucher scheme/scam where you lose 10% of your €1000 in 'commission'.

TheShow

lizzylad84 wrote: »

Apologies if there's already a thread for this. Possibly a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string" question, but how can I calculate bike to work scheme replayments?
The company I work for request weekly repayments over a 10 month period, sobis it simply the ammount (1000)÷ weekly repayments over the 10 months (4×10).

the gross pro rata amount will be deducted from you pay, either on a weekly or monthly basis, where you will save will be on the tax relief you get depending on what rate of tax you pay.

So if the bike cost €1000 and you have to pay for it over 10 months, thats 100 per month to be deducted from you pay, but you will get tax relief on it, so the actual deduction in your net pay will be less.

sheepers

I've just started a new job, haven't been working up until now this year.

As I am unlikely to pay any PAYE between now and the end of the year, should I be waiting until January to avail of this scheme?

TychoCaine

You're better off waiting. You'll get very little benefit on the repayments made this year. Also, most companies won't allow employees still on probation access the scheme.

blarney60

Can anyone explain this scheme clearly to me please?

As Beasty said in the first post "Basically, you can get up to €1,000 of bike/accessories through your employer, either as a completely free benefit-in-kind (if your employer likes you); or paid for by deductions from your salary, saving you tax, PRSI and levies on the purchase price. There is a benefit to the employer as they save employers PRSI."

So there are two options - If the employer likes you, you get it free and pay nothing through your pay? What does it mean as a tax free benefit in kind? If an employer did this with one employee would there be a risk he would have to do it for all employees?

or, presumable the most common way...
you pay bicycle cost as a gross deduction from your wages.

Thanks
Paul

grogi

blarney60 wrote: »

Can anyone explain this scheme clearly to me please?

As Beasty said in the first post "Basically, you can get up to €1,000 of bike/accessories through your employer, either as a completely free benefit-in-kind (if your employer likes you); or paid for by deductions from your salary, saving you tax, PRSI and levies on the purchase price. There is a benefit to the employer as they save employers PRSI."

So there are two options - If the employer likes you, you get it free and pay nothing through your pay? What does it mean as a tax free benefit in kind? If an employer did this with one employee would there be a risk he would have to do it for all employees?

It means you just got a €1000 bonus that is not taxed. You're employer pays €1000, you get €1000 bike.

Without the scheme your employer would pay €1000 for the bike that you receive (plus some additional PRSI contributions). It would be taxed as BIK - so you'd need to pay extra ~250-500 extra tax on it as well.

CramCycle

blarney60 wrote: »

As Beasty said in the first post "Basically, you can get up to €1,000 of bike/accessories through your employer, either as a completely free benefit-in-kind (if your employer likes you);

This is basically how no one does it, basically they would increase your salary by €1000 and then take it off you to pay for the bike.

So there are two options - If the employer likes you, you get it free and pay nothing through your pay? What does it mean as a tax free benefit in kind? If an employer did this with one employee would there be a risk he would have to do it for all employees?

if the employer said it was part of the scheme, then yes, they would have to offer it to all employees.

or, presumable the most common way...
you pay bicycle cost as a gross deduction from your wages.

Thanks
Paul

And this is the way nearly everyone will experience the scheme. If you get paid 30k a year, they will only pay you 29k a year when you avail of the scheme, but you see the savings as 1000k gross, which will work out as roughly €710 net, so you save 29%. If you got paid 50k, then it would be 49k net, and you would only pay€490 net, so a 51% saving.

dahat

Random post but my wife's employer refuses to do this scheme.

Any way around this?

CramCycle

dahat wrote: »

Random post but my wife's employer refuses to do this scheme.

Any way around this?

Nope, bar badgering them and explaining the benefits (they do save money as well), there is no requirement to offer the scheme.

Padre_Pio

Our work uses taxfreebicycles.com to manage the cycle to work scheme.

They only seem to deal with certain bike shops in Ireland though. Has anyone used them and imported their own bike and gear?
I have my eye on an Ebike that I could bring in from the US.

magicbastarder

Padre_Pio wrote: »

They only seem to deal with certain bike shops in Ireland though.

to be fair, it's a reasonably comprehensive list.
https://taxfreebicycles.com/public/cycle_shops.php

Padre_Pio

magicbastarder wrote: »

to be fair, it's a reasonably comprehensive list.
https://taxfreebicycles.com/public/cycle_shops.php

Oh I agree, but I have a particular bike in mind and i would have to get a shop to import it.

magicbastarder

maybe email the manufacturer to ask have they any existing relationship with any shops on that list?

however, i would be curious about what warranty options you might have on a bike which is potentially unique to ireland.

Padre_Pio

magicbastarder wrote: »

maybe email the manufacturer to ask have they any existing relationship with any shops on that list?

however, i would be curious about what warranty options you might have on a bike which is potentially unique to ireland.

Thats my problem, I doubt a shop would import a bike for me, especially an ebike, as they may be liable for it.

Plus I'd prefer to buy myself, and pick up some gear on eBay or AliExpress.

I have emailed taxfreebicycles so we'll see.

magicbastarder

you can't buy it yourself, the point of the scheme is that your employer buys it on your behalf and deducts the money from your gross salary.

MJohnston

Anyone seen a shop in the scheme that stocks either the Volt Pulse LS or the GTech City?

With all these ebike manufacturers that do direct sales via internet, the cycle to work scheme is really starting feel limited.

iwillhtfu

I don't know about the particular brands you mention but greenaer bikes in mullingar do btw and have a good variety of brands.

magicbastarder

MJohnston wrote: »

With all these ebike manufacturers that do direct sales via internet, the cycle to work scheme is really starting feel limited.

the cycle to work scheme is not limited at all in terms of where you can buy - if you can't buy online, that's your employer that's limiting it, it's not a limitation in the scheme itself.

RugbyLover123

Quick question regarding the scheme:

I’m currently on it and have been for a few months. I am switching jobs and my new employer has agreed to pay off the remaining balance. I presume this is possible? And is just paid up to my current employer?

Thanks.