Topic Title

I've been kicking around ideas for a "non-racing" feature in The Press and Andy S mentioned the success of the Cycle to Work scheme where employers can provide employees with a bike, with savings in tax as a result. Has anyone made use of this? If so, would you be happy to help put together something to punt at our friend at The Press?

Royal Mail whom i work for do this a good scheme but bike snobs probaly would not be intrested as its tied in with Halfords

Most bike shops will do the scheme now. Including evans (although i hate giving them money!)

Royal Mail whom i work for do this a good scheme but bike snobs probaly would not be intrested as its tied in with Halfords

Halfords *claim* to be willing to source anything you want...

And actually some of their bikes are half decent - have you had a look at the Boardman brand?

halfords do - do some decent stuff now and can get other brands
if asked, but apparently the boardman range isn't on the cycle to work
scheme

Depending on the scheme there's usually a price limit as well. Ours is £750. Though that did leave me thinking about getting a cheapish fixie again

You can usually spend as much as you like but only the first £x is spent before tax, NI and pension (where in Arthur's case x=750). This is just what I've read, don't know how easy it is in practice.

Not in our scheme. The hard limit is £750. You have to submit receipts for everything (obviously) and the total must be below the limit. I believe it's because of the need for a consumer credit license for larger amounts and the scheme only applies to whole bikes so I can't put £750 towards a new £3k race bike on the scheme and pay the rest myself.

That's the way the Uni does it anyway.

Our limit is 1000 and administered by Halfords
Pete at work (some of you may remember him - he rode the 3 bridges last year?) got a Boardman hybrid and it looks top value for money and v nice bike
Also quite a few accessories for commuting etc so something to think about - you are not tied to just the bike
I got a Pearson Touche fixed + lock via Halfords - which i am v pleased with so far

yup, Nestle scheme much the same as Mark describes for his. Halfords are the chosen 'dealer' and £1000 the limit for the tax benefit.

Halfords claim to source the make/model of your choice and you can spend as much as you like on our scheme, there's no limit, you just only get the tax benefit up to £1000.

Certainly worth considering and costing out versus direct from elsewhere......

I used the C2W scheme last year. The Maximum price we were allowed up to was £1000 and the supply had to be through Halfords, although this year the range of suppliers has been expanded. I used Halfords' central C2W team and found them very flexible and helpful - they could certainly provide any of the choices I made; Cannondale, Focus, Bianchi, and I finished up with a Planet X.

The process is: identify bike you want and amount it costs; obtain a "letter of credit" throught the C2W scheme; tell Halfords (in this case) what bike you want (- I can't remember whether you send them the letter of credit at that point or not); collect bike from nearest Halfords once they've obtained it for you; start paying for it.

The bike remains the property of my employer and I pay a monthly amount to them, for a year, that equates to one twelth of the value of the bike. The monthly repayment is set aside from salary before tax and NI and that is how the saving is made - through reduced tax and NI payments. At the end of the year there is a one off amount paid to my employer and the bike is then mine. At this point I don't know what that will be but it is supposed to be a "nominal amount" - tens of pounds not hundreds I am led to believe. I reckon I'll save between 25% and 30% of the full price, and pay with what amounts to be the equivalent of an interest free loan.

Hope some of you actually WILL bike to work on your glitsy new 'cycle to work' bikes!

Hope some of you actually WILL bike to work on your glitsy new 'cycle to work' bikes!

It's very first outing was to work and back!

Royal Mail whom i work for do this a good scheme but bike snobs probaly would not be intrested as its tied in with Halfords

Halfords *claim* to be willing to source anything you want...

And actually some of their bikes are half decent - have you had a look at the Boardman brand?

I also work for Royal Mail, I was disapointed with the tie in to Halfords not because of the choise issue but because I like to support my local bike shop and not a large chain. The service I get from any of our local shops is 10 times that I am ever likley to get from Halfords!

My second gripe is with the Royal Mail scheme! They have a mizerly £500 limit and you are also banned from putting any money towards the purchase of a more expensive bike.

It would seem that not all schemes are equal, some get to enjoy riding the long way home more than others.

My view is, Tax saving schemes are a great idea but I will not be participating!