Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax

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Sat 28 Aug 2021 10:00
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - Aero1234

I lease a car. From new. Now 4yrs old and end of lease. I am retiring. I want to keep the car however uk tax laws say I can't buy it. But a mate can. So one of my mates buys it. I lend him the money, v5 goes in his name for a week then he sells it for a £1 to me. I know this means I'm 3rd owner...but I know the vehicle.

Is this legal ? The lease just states that I cannot buy it from lease company.

Also posted in legal backroom

Edited by Aero1234 on 28/08/2021 at 11:29

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Sat 28 Aug 2021 14:05
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - Zippy123

Some lease companies refuse to sell to private individuals outright to avoid any reclaim of VAT from HMRC.

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Sat 28 Aug 2021 14:52
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - Engineer Andy

Some lease companies refuse to sell to private individuals outright to avoid any reclaim of VAT from HMRC.

To whom would they sell the cars to in that case? Car supermarkets perhaps?

I wouldn't have thought (at least in normal times) car dealerships would want to bulk buy 3-4yo cars unless at a cheap price due to them being near to or outside the warranty period, which would mean the 'cost' to the leasing firm would likely be passed onto the people leasing the cars originall in the form of higher monthly charges.

I suppose it might depend on the period of the lease.

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Sun 29 Aug 2021 19:33
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - Zippy123

Some lease companies refuse to sell to private individuals outright to avoid any reclaim of VAT from HMRC.

To whom would they sell the cars to in that case? Car supermarkets perhaps?

They usually have agreements with auction houses and sometimes there are arrangements to valet the car and remove minor imperfections before the sale.

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Sun 29 Aug 2021 11:22
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - Miniman777

Some lease co's have a group of select dealers who pitch offers for ex-lease cars.

My old Juke ended up at a car supermarket 5 miles from the lease company base. I suspect most end up at places like Bruntingthorpe, destined for auction by Mannheim or BCA.

It is unusual for a lease co not to sell, s I know several who have done what the OP hoped to do.

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Sat 28 Aug 2021 22:38
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - SLO76

I lease a car. From new. Now 4yrs old and end of lease. I am retiring. I want to keep the car however uk tax laws say I can't buy it. But a mate can. So one of my mates buys it. I lend him the money, v5 goes in his name for a week then he sells it for a £1 to me. I know this means I'm 3rd owner...but I know the vehicle.

Is this legal ? The lease just states that I cannot buy it from lease company.

Also posted in legal backroom

Perfectly legal and a regular enough thing. When I asked for a price for our Honda CRV at the end of its lease this was suggested to me by the leasing firm but the price was too close to retail and factoring in that it needed a couple of tyres and a service it just wasn’t cheap enough so I left it and bought an older Toyota Avensis because I’m tight.
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Mon 30 Aug 2021 07:23
Lease ar - Buying a lease car that I leased private UK tax - Falkirk Bairn

PCP /Lease can have the option to buy the car (or any other piece of equipment) at the end of the lease.

Some leases do not allow the purchase by the lessee at the end of the lease.

The reason is a financial one - where the vehicle is leased and the leasing company takes on & claims tax allowances for owning the vehicle, then the lessee cannot buy at the end of the lease.

If the lease company treats the lease as "a loan" then it is possible to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease.

Some lease equipment, say a company's large server, although not able to be bought at the end of the lease can still be rented at a peppercorn rate - typically the monthly figure might become the annual figure

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