Urgent warning for anyone who has or is about to sign up to Cycle to Work

Doesn't the bike go back to cyclescheme if you don't want to pay?

Not as far as I can tell, the bike is property of the company. Who is leasing it to the individual. The final payment is to transfer ownership from the company to individual.

At least that is my understanding of it... My current company is still in the process of starting a cycle scheme and so I've been spending a bit of time talking to providers. They all gloss over the idea an individual won't wan't the bike by saying it's not happened, but I've not really pushed on that question yet.

the new process is better. with the evans ride to work scheme you will by default extend the hire period at no extra cost. if you dont want to do this after your first year then yes you will have to pay the 25%, the only reason for doing this is if you want to sell the bike or leave the company. as the hire period gets longer the percentage at the end of each year will decrease, until it is predicted that the fee would be so minor it would be negligable (3-4 years 5% or something) so you wont pay anything.
after the first year you can get a new ride to work bike, while "hiring" the previous
there is so much anger on here and so little correct information!

I'm expecting my £500 bill to keep a bike I already have shortly :-(

There's nothing in the rules that states what your monthly payments should be, so the payments can be amended to take the new final payments into account. Of course, Cyclesheme et al benefit from the new schemes, so haven;t done it, but if you are running it yourselves, then change it as below:

Based on £1000 voucher and 17.5% VAT:

Old scenario:
Cost to company = £851.06 after VAT; 12 months rental of £70.92 as salary sacrifice plus 5% transfer fee = £50 (less VAT = £42.55) at the end to transfer. Money back to company = £893.59 total.

New scenario
Cost to company = £851.06 after VAT; now 12 months rental of £56.74 as salary sacrifice under new scheme plus £250 (less VAT = £212.77) at the end to transfer. Income to company = £893.65.

Same savings, but no Benefit in Kind problems.

Getting your HR people to do this is a complete pain in the arse, as they generally don't give a fuck, but if you have one who understands, then they should see the benefit to the employee.

This is an idea i suggested to the providers my company has invited in, but basically as long as your company is using a provider and not doing it themselves (I can't see an advantage to a company doing it themselves), the provider (at least the three I've asked) will not allow it.

One sited that the hmrc will expect the full cost of the bike to be borne during the hire and that to change the numbers round would make hmrc charge as benefit in kind. I'm not sure how true this is as hmrc's documents on the subject are not the same as what they've told some of the larger providers!