Employers can pay up to 20 pence per mile tax free to employees who use their own cycles for business travel.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Resources
Mileage Allowance for cyclists
(28 posts)-
Posted 15 years ago #
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20p per mile for cycling (which is a lot better than the 12p some employers are still paying...), and yet motorcycling only warrants 24p, compared with 40p per mile for cars. Imagine 40p per mile for bicycling to meetings! In fact, I'd probably arrange meetings just so I could ride more.
Posted 15 years ago # -
That's the problem with a system allowing for 'costs' not actually trying to change travel habits.
It used to be the case that bigger cars meant higher mileage allowance - which encouraged people to buy bigger cars which as "essential users" the employer (and taxpayers) paid for.
Posted 15 years ago # -
City of Edinburgh Council pay 25p per mile, although that's taxed. UNISON allow stewards to claim 35p per mile car or bike mileage, although public transport is supposed to be used before private cars.
Posted 15 years ago # -
Kirst I think you might be the same Kirst who used to be so helpful on the Council's messageboard before they closed it down. If so hello again. You helped me out a few times. I've looked for the actual amount payable for going to a meeting by bike but the Council guidelines seem to omit it. Wher did you find that figure? (I mean the 25p a mile figure, not your figure, ahem).
Posted 15 years ago # -
Hello cyclingmollie, that's me. Check out the cycling policy on the Orb (if you can find it, finding things on there is like flailing around blindfolded in a block of flats looking for a drawing pin). You need to fill in the authorisation for using a bike at work form and get a manager to sign it and send it to HR and then just fill in a mileage form every month and send it in. If you can't find it I can email it to you - just let me know on kirsten dot hey at the usual address.
Posted 15 years ago # -
@Kirst
WOW that's a way with words!
"like flailing around blindfolded in a block of flats looking for a drawing pin"
Posted 15 years ago # -
I take it you've never used the system in question! That's exactly what it's like.
Posted 15 years ago # -
You have superior experience there.
Though surely "like flailing around blindfolded" is a slight exaggeration??
Oh, I've just realised where you work........
Posted 15 years ago # -
This seems to be a useful thread to pose the question I keep hassling @Greenroofer on.
If your employer provides the bike can you still claim mileage?
Or to think of it another way, is the mileage rate for bike parts or porridge?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Don’t forget wear & tear on your clothes / shoes
Posted 7 years ago # -
The mileage can be claimed regardless of the bike. Mine are all done on a bike to work bicycle owned by the company. At 25 p a mile however, I have not claimed in two years since my good friend, colleague and cycling buddy retired. He always claimed around ten pounds a month and I always tried to get eleven pounds.
The mileage for cycling, I first became aware of in 1992 when working for Scot gov. Similar 25p a mile. When I remarked on this remarkable perk, I was told it is to incentivise cycling
Posted 7 years ago # -
If your employer provides the bike can you still claim mileage?
Interestingly, to contrast with gembo's answer, I believe the answer is no.
This is because conventionally, the employee makes their own bicycle available to the employer for the purposes of business travel (and thus the bicycle is not "a company vehicle" and therefore falls within the Approved Mileage Allowance Payments schedule).
A bicycle that the employer provides, and the employee merely uses is excluded from AMAP. "A vehicle is a company vehicle if…in the case of a cycle, the employee would have been taxable on a benefit in respect of it, if the exemption described at EIM21664 had not applied." EIM21664 is the arrangement for cycle to work scheme bikes.
In a cycle to work scheme where the employer hires the bike to the employee, the employer owns the bike until it doesn't, after which point the employee can claim business travel mileage.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Phew, luckily I have only been using my own bike ever for cycling t work and do not actually use any bikes owned b my employer or hired from my employer except of course the lecky bike and I have as stated never made a claim for mileage.
I still go with incentive to cycle BUt as arellcat points out, better check with your employer, see if Greenroofer can get a definitive answer.
When I used the bus I thought I would help my employer out by saving them money on my claims by buying a bus pass. All was sweetness and light until I then received a tax bill for doing this. This did not go down well with me. But the explanation I was given by my HR dept was very logical and I paid up not quite happily but along the lines FAIR enough
Posted 7 years ago # -
There is nothing to stop your employer paying you for the use of its own bike. The downside for you and them is it would almost certainly be taxable.
The starting point is whether you have an allowable deduction for an expense against your earnings. The test for an employee is the long standing "wholly, exclusively and necessarily", described in judgement as notoriously difficult to establish.
Most employee deduction claims, such as for the use of an employee's bike on employer duties, are small and administratively very expensive to resolve for not much tax. Consequently HMRC sensibly permit and agree standard allowances, such as the 20p mileage figure. The same system applies for cars, food and accommodation amongst others.
The bottom line is that it has to be the employee's expense, in this case the use of their bike.
A claim for wear and tear on clothes falls on many levels, on each of the wholly, exclusively and necessarily tests for starters.
Posted 7 years ago # -
A bike to work bike is essentially hired back to me for the duration of the scheme, so I could in theory claim mileage for it.
My car is deemed a company car. My employer leases it, but sub leases it to me at a reduced cost. i still claim for my mileage.
This is a good reminded for me to raise using my bikes for business with my (new) boss.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Thanks all. What about using Boris Bikes?
I charge the hire cost but have yet to claim for any mileage. Could I?
On my last trip I cycled to the city but walked back, both made me hungry.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Well there is the wear and tear on your joints but then I guess you cannot claim for shoe leather if you walk.
You generally cannot claim for the first journey of the day (but maybe that is not true if away on business?) nor last journey home.
Posted 7 years ago # -
What about using Boris Bikes?
I cannot see any difference between a bike provided by an employer and one provided by a third party. Neither are yours. There is no cost to you. The hire charge claim is entirely correct.
You generally cannot claim for the first journey of the day (but maybe that is not true if away on business?) nor last journey home.
Depending on your employer's policy I cannot see why the first journey per se is not allowed, but a journey to and from your work to home should fall foul.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@remberbuck, by first journey of the day, I meant your journey to your normal place of work
Posted 7 years ago # -
I have a further wrinkle, because I believe (although I can't remember why I believe it) that you can only claim for mileage above your normal commute. This is an extension of gembo's point, but also means in my mind that the first N miles of each day's riding (where N is your daily commute) can't be claimed.
The answer I gave HC, for the record, is the same one that the collective wisdom of the Forum has given him.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@greenroofer? We have an agreement that if your first journey from home to your destination exceeds the distance from your home to office (when your destination is not the office) then you can claim the difference even though t is first journey. This was v protracted negotiation with HMRC rules poured over. Mostly these seem to pertain to travelling salesmen and travelling saleswomen
Posted 7 years ago # -
@gembo - we have an agreement.
Posted 7 years ago # -
In a previous company where I did a lot of travelling, it was the shorter of distance from home or the office to the client. Seemed sensible enough.
@greenroofer - I never doubted you ;-) I should say that it is a theoretical debate as I have never claimed for cycle mileage and think I would be laughed at by my manager if I ever did. I do hold the record for the lowest single expense claim in my department for a tram journey into town. (I was paying by card so picked out my Corporate card)
Posted 7 years ago # -
@HC - seeing as it was me who got our employer to agree to pay cycle mileage, I have been itching for years to find a way to claim it, even if only on principle, but have never yet had an opportunity.
I haven't yet sunk so low as to arrange a vaguely spurious meeting elsewhere that I can cycle to.
Posted 7 years ago # -
If you want me to try out the process, I can. Living nearer the office means that when I have an occasional trip into town I could claim for it.
Whether we have £1.50 budget for it is another matter...
Posted 7 years ago # -
@HC @greenroofer When based at South Gyle I often had meetings at the Airport Hilton, and always biked there. Sadly I didn't know about the bike mileage claim possibility!
Bike parking was(is?) non-existent but the staff were always very accommodating about me leaving the bike in the left luggage room.
Posted 7 years ago # -
As other's have said, employers can pay Mileage Allowances for use of the employees own bike, but not for travel between Home and a "Permanent Workplaces" I think permanent workplace is defined as somewhere where more than 40% of time is spent for over 24 months.
Posted 7 years ago #
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