Bike to Work - Qualifying Journeys

Gophur

Problem: Home office based, struggling to get HR to approve participation in Bike to Work Scheme.

Solution: Boardsies to suggest suitable types of trips to be suggested, to HR, to justify participation in said scheme!

Right? Let's hear some ideas I can use to get that new bike?

Jawgap

the employer saves themselves some money too - the PRSI.

Do you ever go into the office?

Gophur

Jawgap wrote: »

..............

Do you ever go into the office?

Nope, unfortunately, it's abroad!

Lumen

Trip to the pub, with HR

seamus

Construct a downhill course in your back garden out of scaffolding and wooden boards, starting with your bedroom window, looping a couple of times before dirt jumping into your home office.

Problem solved.

-Chris-

Say you sometimes need to relocate to a coffee shop or library in order to get some "thinking time" away from your normal set up.

You intend to cycle there in order to make sure your head is clear and switched on.

Beasty

According to the rules:

Qualifying journey means:

"... the whole or part (e.g. between home and train station) of a journey between the employee’s or director’s home and normal place of work, or between his or her normal place of work and another place of work ..."

So meeting someone at "another place of work" would count, but "at the pub" would not (unless you work there, but don't live there!). A cycle to the airport on the way to the overseas office would count for example

Of course, there is also the "mainly" test to consider.

Beasty

-Chris- wrote: »

Say you sometimes need to relocate to a coffee shop or library in order to get some "thinking time" away from your normal set up.

You intend to cycle there in order to make sure your head is clear and switched on.

Needs to be a "place of work" though - a place to think is not such a place, otherwise everyone could potentially count every journey they make on a bike, providing they are thinking about work:D

Gophur

Beasty wrote: »

Needs to be a "place of work" though - a place to think is not such a place, otherwise everyone could potentially count every journey they make on a bike, providing they are thinking about work:D

LBS guy told me today he sold some bikes to local part-time firemen!!!!

Now, the last thing I want to hear is that, if my house is on fire, the firemen are cycling to work!!!! :eek:

silvo

seamus wrote: »

Construct a downhill course in your back garden out of scaffolding and wooden boards, starting with your bedroom window, looping a couple of times before dirt jumping into your home office.

Problem solved.

A bit like this guy (ff to 0.26)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqaWssOTztM

.

I don't think I would ever leave the house.

tomasrojo

Gophur wrote: »

LBS guy told me today he sold some bikes to local part-time firemen!!!!

Now, the last thing I want to hear is that, if my house is on fire, the firemen are cycling to work!!!! :eek:

You haven't seen I Heart Huckabees?

The fireman on the bicycle beat the traffic and got to the fire first. He wasn't able to put out the fire though, as far as I remember.

route66

Beasty wrote: »

Needs to be a "place of work" though - a place to think is not such a place, otherwise everyone could potentially count every journey they make on a bike, providing they are thinking about work:D

Ok, so then you would cycle to:

• The library for research
• The bank to check your salary payments
• The post office to send mail & buy stamps and collect parcel mail
• The courier's office to drop off deliveries
• As mentioned - the Airport, Train, bus, Dart, Luas station to facilitate further work-related travel (Travel to overseas office, conferences, training courses, etc)
• The plumber/electrician/IT/repairs organisations that help maintain your home-office environment

etc, etc

Inquitus

Cycle from the kitchen to your home office, thats the full commute, not even part of it!

paddymacsporran

Turbo trainer....

Beasty

route66 wrote: »

Ok, so then you would cycle to:

• The library for research
• The bank to check your salary payments
• The post office to send mail & buy stamps and collect parcel mail
• The courier's office to drop off deliveries
• As mentioned - the Airport, Train, bus, Dart, Luas station to facilitate further work-related travel (Travel to overseas office, conferences, training courses, etc)
• The plumber/electrician/IT/repairs organisations that help maintain your home-office environment

etc, etc

Not one of those is a "place of work" for these purposes, and the only one that qualifies is the airport etc one if it is part of a journey to a place of work (and attending a conference or training course is not working, although presenting at one would be)

It's where the employee works that matters, not where the bankers, couriers, plumbers etc work.

If you are going somewhere to carry out your usual "work" it's fine - research, dropping off deliveries etc are ancilliary to your work, unless you are a researcher or delivery person!

superrdave

Just wondering.... do couriers get their bikes on the bike to work scheme? I mean, they do have to cycle from home to the office every day, don't they? The bike isn't being used mainly for the purposes of getting to and from work...

Beasty

superrdave wrote: »

Just wondering.... do couriers get their bikes on the bike to work scheme? I mean, they do have to cycle from home to the office every day, don't they? The bike isn't being used mainly for the purposes of getting to and from work...

If it's being used exclusively for work there is no taxable benefit anyway.

If not, are they PAYE employees? - if so, yes they could get a bike if their employer ran the scheme. The schme is not, however, available to the self-employed

cojomo2

Beasty wrote: »

If it's being used exclusively for work there is no taxable benefit anyway.

If not, are they PAYE employees? - if so, yes they could get a bike if their employer ran the scheme. The schme is not, however, available to the self-employed

Think you are wrong there. I am self employed, although not currently getting a wage...I rang revenue, they told me if I was getting a wage I could participate fully in the scheme..I told them I wasn't getting a wage and asked could I use company funds to purchase a bike for cycling to work, and they said I could, so I will be.

Beasty

If you are employed by a company you are not self employed, you are a PAYE employee or director, and qualify for the scheme

However if you are not getting a wage, you are presumably not paying any tax, and the scheme is of absolutely no benefit to you (as the benefit is the tax you save)

I can categorically confirm the scheme is not available to the self-employed (and never could be in its current form, as it only works under PAYE). It is, however, available to employees of the self-employed who are themselves taxed under the PAYE system