What tax relief is available on a leased car?
Kully Sahota ACMA ★
Solving the stress of accounting for Founders while growing a ￡1M+ practice.
I was thinking about leasing a car, as my local dealer has a good deal on at the moment. But I was wondering what tax relief I’d get on it- can you talk me through it please?
Firstly, just be careful here as 'lease' can mean different things and depending on what they mean it can have significant impact on the relief you will be able to get.
If you are in essence, ‘renting’ it and will hand it back in the future then it is classed as an operating lease.
This means, that if the car has emissions under 110g/km, you can get tax relief on all of the payments.
However, if the car’s emissions are above 110g/km, then 15% is blocked, so only 85% can be claimed for income tax or corporation tax purposes.
If your business is VAT registered, then be aware that not all VAT charged will be claimable, as half of the VAT is often blocked on operating lease payments - on the assumption that they often have a mixture of business and personal use.
If you would like to discuss your plans before you sign anything, we would be happy to help.