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Taking the BIKsit

I work for a small privately-owned construction company. The owner drives a company owned Audi that he uses exclusively on company business. He has his own privately owned vehicle for private use. HMRC refuse to allow the company to reclaim VAT on the Audi and insists on treating it as a benefit in kind because it is available for private use, by which they mean he may not use it privately but he could if he wanted to. We are advised that if private use is excluded from the insurance cover, this would be enough to allow HMRC to accept that the vehicle would not be available for private use and therefore enable us to reclaim the VAT and avoid the benefit in kind assessment. We have scoured the market but have been unable to find an insurer who is prepared to insure business use only. Can you help?

Asked on 14 February 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
Try www.primoplc.com But the test is normally where the car is kept. If it is kept at business premises, and these are more than walking
distance from the man's residence, then it is purely a business car. If he ever takes it home, it isn't. They only need to photograph the car once, in his driveway, parked overnight, and he's stuffed.
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