Is is possible register a UK bike retailer with the Irish Bike to work scheme

k123456

I want to buy a Bike, thru the Irish Bike to work scheme, from a UK retailer

I have contacted
https://www.biketowork.ie/
but they have said they only deal with Irish Bike retailers

Is is possible register a UK bike retailer with the Irish Bike to work scheme

Thanks

PS the company I work for is
registered

with
https://www.biketowork.ie

Avatar MIA

k123456 wrote: »

I want to buy a Bike, thru the Irish Bike to work scheme, from a UK retailer

I have contacted
https://www.biketowork.ie/
but they have said they only deal with Irish Bike retailers

Is is possible register a UK bike retailer with the Irish Bike to work scheme

Thanks

PS the company I work for is
registered

with
https://www.biketowork.ie

It wouldn't make sense. The Irish government is foregoing income tax on the value of the bike, but will gain from the VAT and IT/CT of the business.

If it allowed UK bike shops to register it would lose out on the double.

cdaly_

You know biketowork.ie takes 10% of your €1000 as 'commission' resulting in a loss of your bargaining power with the bike shop. As far as I know, they don't reduce the effort for your company in any fashion as the company still has to administer the salary sacrifice and tax writeoff and such.

I'd be asking personnel why they are facilitating such a tax on employees...

Eponymous

I know civil servants with BtW bikes bought from Canyon and PlanetX, so this isn't anything to do with the Government preventing it.

biketowork.ie is a private enterprise so I guess they set whatever rules make it easier for them.

k123456

is there a government agency i can ring , looks like biketowork.ie and a UK retailer is a non runner

Kaisr Sose

Avatar MIA wrote: »

It wouldn't make sense. The Irish government is foregoing income tax on the value of the bike, but will gain from the VAT and IT/CT of the business.

If it allowed UK bike shops to register it would lose out on the double.

Under the scheme, you can buy anywhere, once your employer is ok with the retailer and, crucially, they;

-invoice in Euro,
-have an Irish VAT
-are prepared to do it
-your employer is ok with this

Income tax or supporting labour in another jurisdiction does not come into it. As said by about poster, it’s accepable for civil servants to buy from Canyon.

PS: There is not Govt Dept to ring. It’s best to start with your employer. If they say no to buying outside their normal process, it’s not going to work for you.

The website you reference is a private company - if they are the only people your company deal with then you are out of luck.

If your company will deal with anyone I don't see how the government could limit the purchasing to Irish companies - your problem then would be getting the foreign company do the necessary legwork like invoicing the company etc.

cython

Avatar MIA wrote: »

It wouldn't make sense. The Irish government is foregoing income tax on the value of the bike, but will gain from the VAT and IT/CT of the business.

If it allowed UK bike shops to register it would lose out on the double.

As has been said, the Irish government place no impediment in the way of online purchases, provided VAT is paid in Ireland - many online retailers (e.g. Canyon, CRC, Wiggle) sell enough into Ireland that they are already doing this. Ultimately no registration is necessary on the part of the retailer unless they want to be a vendor under one of the middleman schemes who take a cut.

km991148

As far as I rem biketowork.ie is just a middleman. I'm not sure of the advantages they offer to employees or companies using them, but I don't remember many (other than the employer only needs to deal with invoices form one company) and to me it seems like a simple trick/marketing to call them selves biketowork.ie. The biketowork web site doesn't seem to specify any specific advantages of using biketowork.ie over the vanilla cycle to work scheme form the gov.

The gov cycle to work scheme cannot restrict the scheme in a way that stops trade from anywhere in the EU.

km991148

cython wrote: »

provided VAT is paid in Ireland - .

Where the VAT paid is not related to Cycle to work scheme.

Generally speaking retailers do not have to pay Irish vat unless they go over a particular sales threshold.

So for example amazon need to charge Irish vat as they are doing massive amounts of Irish sales. But Jimmy Joes Cycles in Grangemouth who sells one bike to Ireland per year doesnt need to bother with Irish VAT and can just charge UK vat.

tldr; VAT rules are complicated and not ties to cycle to work.

Ferris

Eponymous wrote: »

I know civil servants with BtW bikes bought from Canyon and PlanetX, so this isn't anything to do with the Government preventing it.

biketowork.ie is a private enterprise so I guess they set whatever rules make it easier for them.

Correct, I got my bike on the bike to work scheme with Chain Reaction.

km991148

Ferris wrote: »

Correct, I got my bike on the bike to work scheme with Chain Reaction.

That's the Cycle to Work scheme, rather than bike to work that the op posted about?

km991148

km991148 wrote: »

The gov cycle to work scheme cannot restrict the scheme in a way that stops trade from anywhere in the EU.

Quoting myself here.. but a clarification - it seems the only restriction is that the invoice is written in Euro. I'm sure any small retailer would write the euro equivalent on there tho.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/what-constitutes-pay/items-not-treated-as-pay/provision-of-bicycles-for-directors-and-employees.aspx

Ferris

km991148 wrote: »

That's the Cycle to Work scheme, rather than bike to work that the op posted about?

Nope, Irish bike to work scheme.

Victor

km991148 wrote: »

That's the Cycle to Work scheme, rather than bike to work that the op posted about?

There is only one scheme, run through the tax system.

Bike to Work is a private company that helps large organisations manage the scheme.

Del2005

km991148 wrote: »

Quoting myself here.. but a clarification - it seems the only restriction is that the invoice is written in Euro. I'm sure any small retailer would write the euro equivalent on there tho.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/what-constitutes-pay/items-not-treated-as-pay/provision-of-bicycles-for-directors-and-employees.aspx

I bought from a UK retailer that had prices in sterling and euro. They accidentally sent me the wrong account that couldn't accept Euro payments and it took a while to sort out the money. So for a small UK business it may be possible for them to invoice in Euro but they might not be able to receive Euro transfers.

km991148

Victor wrote: »

There is only one scheme, run through the tax system.

Bike to Work is a private company that helps large organisations manage the scheme.

Ferris wrote: »

Nope, Irish bike to work scheme.

Exactly, there is no "Irish Bike to Work scheme". There is an Irish Cycle to work scheme and there is an Irish company called bike to work.

Confusingly most colloquially call the 'Cycle to work scheme' 'bike to work' or 'bike to work scheme' - I am being pedantic as it is important in the context of the opening post which appears to also confuse the rules of the Bike to work company with the cycle to work scheme.

km991148

OP - try and see if your company can do normal Cycle to Work. Maybe they don't know or realise how simple it is, but if you do some of the legwork, it may work in your favour.

When making enquiries with retailers, try and ensure you can get them to work in euro and whatever other rules may apply.

k123456

Ok thanks all for the info, I need to pursue my employer re
Cycle to Work

Lumen

This sort of confusion would be avoided if the morons in power used .gov.ie domains for all government websites.

Feidhlim Dignan

So did anyone figure out this issue?
I'm looking to get a bike from Wiggle on bike to work scheme
Thanks

cletus

Feidhlim Dignan wrote: »

So did anyone figure out this issue?
I'm looking to get a bike from Wiggle on bike to work scheme
Thanks

It really depends on how your company administers the Cycle to Work scheme. If they are using a 3rd party (i.e. biketowork or similar) you're stuck using whatever retailers they deal with.

Ask H.R. in work how the scheme is run there