April
2009 saw the biggest change to company car
taxation for almost 10 years. Its goes much
further along the green CO2 emissions based
tax regime, earlier introduced to employees
on their company car tax bandings.
Capital allowance
Ownership plans such
as Cash or Hire/Lease Purchase previously
allowed companies a written down allowance
of 20% of a vehicles depreciating value
each year to a maximum of £3,000.
Commercial vehicles have no monetary capping.
From 2009, vehicles
emitting between 111g/km to 160g/km can
still claim 20%. Cars above 160g/km will
now only be able to claim 10% depreciation
(most company/fleet cars currently fall
into this category). Cars with a CO2 emission
of less than 110g/km are allowed a first
year allowance of 100%.
Leasing allowances/Non
ownership
Again, in an effort
to go green, the “half the access”
rule has been scrapped in favour of a CO2
banding scale. Vehicles with under 160g/km
of CO2 emissions can offset 100% of rentals.
CO2 emissions greater than 160g/km are subject
to a Lease Rental Restriction of 15%, meaning
85% of the rental.
100% of maintenance
can still be offset.
