Use of Company Pool Cars
One of our clients asked us if a member of staff had to leave early for a business meeting on a Monday, could they take a pool car home on the Friday. They live about 40 miles from their office. It is likely the employee will use the car briefly over the weekend for personal use and they would be using fuel purchased by the company. The client asked where does the company stand on tax through their payroll?
Quite simply, in order to satisfy HM Revenue & Customs the car is a pool car, it needs to be available to more than 1 employee and is usually left at the companies address over night and not normally kept at or near the homes of employee's for more than 60% of the year. The vehicle must not be used by one employee to the exclusion of all other employee's.
HMRC would accept that the employee taking the car home and having some use over the weekend, is in actual fact incidental to the main journey to be completed on the following Monday, as such this would not need to be declared to HMRC.
