Cycle to work scheme

Here goes.

Girlfriend has cycle to work scheme - I don't. Can I get a bike in her name but for me. I'd then give her the money that she would lose from her salary. Am I some criminal mastermind or a stupid c*nt for not thinking of something obvious.

Advice please - although I accept I might be a stupid c*nt regardless of this post!

Al

You sir, are a criminal mastermind! I can see no reason why that shouldn't work.

I don't see why not. What are you getting?

My cycle to work scheme was fairly lax.

I'd like a Condor Pista - bought a Langster as a my first fixed experience in March and now want an upgrade. I accept there a bit ubiquitous (fuck me, I think I've spelt it correctly), but have had a Condor bike for 20 years and have always been happy with it.

Is your GF a good liar? If so do it. May be a bit suspect though if she is 5 foot and you are 6 foot 2 when she orders a 25 inch frame.

Girlfriend has cycle to work scheme - I don't. Can I get a bike in her name but for me. I'd then give her the money that she would lose from her salary. Am I some criminal mastermind or a stupid c*nt for not thinking of something obvious.

You should study the conditions of her scheme. It would probably be a breach of conditions, but it might have loopholes. I think that conditions typically include a requirement to actually ride the bike obtained to work, and that it should be for the person applying and not for someone else.

Can you get your own employer to consider the scheme?

All the info you should need is here:
http://lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=408

Oliver
LCC

If the shop are happy to play along, it will work. It also depends on how much interest her work takes in it, as there are certain conditions (which I've never seen HMRC take any interest in) that have to be fulfilled and which her work should be policing.

Hmmm, thought of the bike problem and am reasonably happy that a representative of the local authority won't be taking measurements of the girlfriend to assess frame size v leg measurement (although I'd like that job I think...)

Thanks Oliver for the advice - local authority I work for is one of those everyone should cycle to work and here's what we're doing to promote it - but curiously is not a participant in the cycle to work scheme!

You should study the conditions of her scheme. It would probably be a breach of conditions, but it might have loopholes. I think that conditions typically include a requirement to actually ride the bike obtained to work, and that it should be for the person applying and not for someone else.

Can you get your own employer to consider the scheme?

All the info you should need is here:
http://lcc.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=408

Oliver
LCC

Ah, fake tax advice. There are no loopholes, it's covered by a fairly simple piece of legislation that removes the benefit in kind charge for providing a biycle "mainly" for "qualifying purposes".

If you're not employed by the person supplying the bike, it isn't being used for a qualifying purpose. There are also other considerations to think about where the scheme is being administered by a third party (i.e. Cyclescheme, Evans, Halfords) and some stuff to do with salary sacrifice too.

The moral of the story is: try and get your employer to do it themselves. It's quite painless with someone like Cyclescheme.

However, do I think that you'd be able to get away with it? Yes. Should you? That's for your conscience, but bear in mind that you'd get a slap on the wrist from the tax man if you got caught, however unlikely that is.

Hmmm, thought of the bike problem and am reasonably happy that a representative of the local authority won't be taking measurements of the girlfriend to assess frame size v leg measurement (although I'd like that job I think...)

Thanks Oliver for the advice - local authority I work for is one of those everyone should cycle to work and here's what we're doing to promote it - but curiously is not a participant in the cycle to work scheme!

Limited benefit to Cycle Scheme when you work for a local authority, as you miss out on the VAT savings (which are worth about 15%). Bigger savings for people who work for companies that can reclaim VAT.

The conscience thing isn't a problem - I cycle to and from work every day, so the bike would be used. It's just that I don't have the advantage of the scheme and she does. Having said that, I am pissed off that a London borough doesn't offer this scheme!

Which scheme is your partners voucher for?

If its the one that uses Hellfrauds then they will just be happy to have your money in the till.

You could use the voucher to buy 1 bike for another person, multiple bikes for other people, kids bikes, hell you could even use it to buy a Sat Nav (i used to work for hellfrauds and have seen this happen).

As for any repercusions from the tax man/her employer, surely the day the tax man comes to check she is cycling to work on her tax free bike could be the day that she decided to leave the bike at home and take the train/bus/car because of period pains/puncture/hangover etc.

And if they want to know why your 4foot tall girlfriend has bought a bike with a 65cm frame...well you did buy it from halfords, is it really that unbelievable that thats the frame size they would recommend?

Ah, fake tax advice. There are no loopholes, it's covered by a fairly simple piece of legislation that removes the benefit in kind charge for providing a biycle "mainly" for "qualifying purposes".

Thanks, Tom, I didn't know that the rules went back right to the legislation. I've always heard that there was a wide variety of ways in which the schemes were administered and erroneously assumed this was among the scope for variations.

The conscience thing isn't a problem - I cycle to and from work every day, so the bike would be used. It's just that I don't have the advantage of the scheme and she does. Having said that, I am pissed off that a London borough doesn't offer this scheme!

PM me more details if you want and we can take it forward. We've got quite a few LAs to start these. It usually comes down to reluctance by one person somewhere if it hasn't taken this on yet. We just need to find out who's responsible and start a constructive dialogue with them.

Oliver
LCC

So, am i hearing this correctly? Work pays for you to get a bike? Or do you simply get discount or money off the total? Sounds sweet either way.

Thid thread is useless without pictures of your girlfriend ;)

has been done before. know somone doing it now,

So, am i hearing this correctly? Work pays for you to get a bike? Or do you simply get discount or money off the total? Sounds sweet either way.

You get a voucher from the Cycle to Work scheme for an amount up to about £1100 then your repayments are taken out of your wages over a 12 month period before Tax and NI are paid so basically your saving is the amount of Tax and NI that you would have paid on that amount.

...do these fools not know what they've done?

Oh MAN this summer is going to be sweet. Any recommendations?

i recomend you use the little tab at the top of the page that says 'search'.

Enjoy!

cavendish will also be on there then

i recomend you use the little tab at the top of the page that says 'search'.

Oh, I only put the recommendations question in there to make it look like I wasn't just showing off.

Whereas in actual fact I made this thread just to show off.

Sorry for the confusion.

My fists itch

cavendish will also be on there then

Good looking out.

I think it's Iro time.