There are many ways to lease a car for your business - from the business leasing the vehicle and the costs are offset against profits, through to making a purchase privately outside of the business and billing the business for mileage. The former attracts company car taxes and employers NICs on the benefit in kind. This however depends upon the type of vehicle.
We have previously created a calculator to work out the savings for leasing a car through your business. The calculator works on the basis of paying a monthly lease cost of the car as a business cost and then paying company car tax on personal earnings.
But what about purchasing a vehicle through the business, specifically - an electric car.
Electric cars have had the benefit of a zero percent BIK company car rate, as well as the ability to write-off 100 percent of the purchase price against company profits. Fossil or hybrid cars can write-off 6 percent per year of the purchase cost.
With rising fuels costs and the move toward greener technology this has made it an attractive option, but with one big caveat. The vehicle must be 'brand new' to be able to write off the full purchase price.
Electric cars compared to fossil fuel burners are relatively rather expensive (though cheaper options are now emerging on the market). However, some electric vehicles have been on the market since 2013 now, for example the BMW i3 - and early examples of this car can be purchased for around £10,000 to £15,000. This is favourable against a brand new vehicle at up to £40,000.
Second hand or used electric cars can write-off/claim 18 percent of the purchase costs against company profits per year. When the car is sold a balancing allowance is claimed based on the price the car is sold for.
To help calculate how much a business can save on the costs of a used electric car due to tax savings we have created the calculator at the top. It covers a three year period - 2022, 2023 and 2024. These are years in which the BIK rate will remain at 2 percent. For the calculation the P11d value will be the value when the vehicle was brand new.
Note. for now, the calculator assumes a 20 percent depreciation rate, 15.05 ER 1A rate, small profits rate at 19 percent, BIK rate of 2 percent until 2025, then an estimated 5 percent, new car capital allowance of 100 percent, used car capital of 18 percent on residual basis.