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Commuter cyclistGovernment should give tax breaks to people who take up cycling to work say Boardman and Storey
British Cycling’s policy adviser Chris Boardman and Britain’s most successful female paralympian Dame Sarah Storey have urged the government to introduce tax breaks of up to £250 per year for those who take up cycling to work.
The proposal, plus a suggestion that companies be offered tax incentives for investing in cycling, comes from Jolyon Maugham QC – one of the country’s top tax experts – on behalf of the #ChooseCycling network.
Just 2 per cent of Brits currently cycle regularly with annual government spend on cycling at below £1 per head. This compares with the Netherlands where cycling spend is currently at around £30 per head and around 30 per cent of trips are made by bike.
Boardman, said: “If more people cycled to work regularly the government would save millions on squeezed NHS budgets and our roads would be much less congested. That in itself would more than pay for a £250 tax break and would provide a real incentive for people to live more active lives.”
Storey said: “Britain’s businesses have woken up to the benefits that cycling can bring to their employees and it’s about time that the government followed suit.
"It’s only right that if a company invests heavily in providing high quality changing and bike storage facilities – things that will help our nation become healthier and fitter – that they should get a tax incentive for it.
"We want Britain to become a true cycling nation and we’ll only get there if we can get the government to be forward-thinking and to work in partnership with business.”
Maugham’s proposals are:
- A specific capital allowance for businesses which invest in facilities for cyclists (showers, bike parking etc) up to a cost of £100,000
- Tax breaks of up to £250 per year for people who take up cycling to work
- Extending the cycle to work scheme – enabling people to buy bicycles from untaxed income – to cover people who are self-employed
Maugham said: “The specific measures we’ve proposed tackle some of the key disincentives to cycling. They are innovative, cost-effective and will help deliver a number of the government’s key objectives.”
A recent survey of British Cycling’s #ChooseCycling network found that improving employee health and wellbeing was the top priority for businesses who invest in cycling facilities and promotion.
Two thirds of the firms viewed the promotion of cycling as more important now than in previous years, and there was a desire to do more to promote cycling to customers and service users.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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43 comments
I agree with criticism of the C2W scheme. I made my monthly payments and then opted to pay the final 'we promise we'll never ask for it back payment' and it came to the same price as the purchase price?! My mate at work's had several C2W bikes and just says he ignores the final 'we'll never ask for it back' payment and has never been asked to hand one back. What gives
?!
The C2W scheme isn't to discount the bike, it's to take payment out of your wages before tax therefore the saving is in the tax you pay, not in the cost of the bike. Equally, if your salary is such that you don't pay tax then there is no benefit in the C2W scheme for you.
Personally I'd scrap all the various duties, benefits, schemes, etc., and just stick a massive tax on fuel at the pump with rebates for public and commercial transport. I wouldn't get voted in on that ticket I don't suppose though!
Tax cars according to the space they take up especially width, that way there would be more room for cycling infrastructure which is a must if we are serious about encouraging cycling. Narrow roads could have width restrictions to help things along. Gamechanger - but no driving two abreast or forming a peloton.
I always thought the bike to work scheme allowed higher rate taxpayers to buy a heavily discounted OKish bike every few years. They could still drive their BMWs or Mercs in.
This is not how serious commuters seem to do it. Repair, replace and upgrade. When needed. And for us lower rate tax plebs the savings online are generally better and far quicker than the scheme. My work used to only offer the scheme a couple of months a year, with large restrictions, new bike only. It's now year round, and could be used to buy parts or to contribute to a more expensive bike if you go to the right shop, but could still get you into trouble, I wouldn't want to be commiting fraud.
Never driven and always rode to work so I guess the scheme isn't meant for me, probably meant to persuade people out of cars, but I don't think it really did that.
My old employer, University, never encouraged not driving your car in. One of my bosses takes the train in and walks up. If he drives in he is charged a weeks worth for that one day. If you have paid for parking for the year why would you use any other method, say cycling in in the summer if the weather was nice. They have made improvements. They used to charge 10p a day for parking, and the drivers found that charge ridiculously heavy. Now it's based on wage and seems to be £1-£2 a day. Some secure-ish bike parking too. And a discount on train fares now, always for the buses, and not when I could have done with it, and there are complications.
My Mrs Cycles to Work.... and would enjoy the tax break.... recording by Strava or gps app would not be an issue... We see everyday around here the local Facebook Group Pages of folk whinging that they cant get from this part of town to that part of Town... Traffic signals, Poor Road Infrastructure & way too many vehicles on the roads really.
Some local Cyclists always go on to wind them up to say " it took x mins to get home" "Cycle such a short distance" (couple of miles or more) and so it goes on, with the Fat Bottom Car Drivers making excuses as to why they need to drive...
Tax Breaks for those who commute would not be an issue for them and many would like the £250 to put towards Servicing etc. I guess the VED argument comes about but then if the Common Sense Head comes into play by those who actually think about the aims of this proposal then the argument will wain. Saving time, cash, better health,parking costs is really a no brainer if you live up to 6 miles from work... IMHO for what it's worth.
Parking charges at work are likely to become more widespread and I'd hazard a guess this will be driven(sorry) from 11 Downing Street as a stealth tax, local councils are already on the ball looking at it
Interesting one for me, as I do a mix of working from home and driving/cycling to the office, depending on whether I'm dropping little one off - this week, I've cycled 2 days, mostly only manage 1.
I don't know if any benefit/cost is going to be pro-rata'd - I'd be a bit anoyed to be paying an annual fee for car parking (currently free) if I'm only using it 1-2 days a week. On the other hand, I'll naturally be taking full advantage of any tax breaks available
Before my company moved offices, it was too far and on roads that I wouldn't like to ride on during rush hour, so I didn't cycle - I'm sure there's plenty of people in that situation. My wife's route to work is along some hideous roads to cycle on - there are no cycle tracks that I know of, unless you go miles out of your way/through a forest, and she doesn't have the confidence.
There's also going to be a lot of people that can't cycle due to the requirements of their job. Etc. In short, there would be plenty of people that would be pretty upset if they got stung by any new charges for not cycling, which wouldn't help the anti-cycling sentiments.
I know a few people that bought bikes on the cycle to work scheme, none of which have ever used them to cycle to work, because they can't due to their route or jobs. So they shouldn't have bought them that way, but no-one stopped them. One of them was definitely abusing the system by getting a full-on enduro mountain bike!
That's always going to be the case but there are literally millions of people making relatively short journeys to work (and many additional journeys) by car, especially in urban areas, who could switch to cycling, walking or public transport if there was adequate incentive. It has been done already. Real modal shift will need more than a tax break, of course, but you have to start somewhere. It would show intent and anyway the tax system has always been manipulated in this way.
Perhaps one day people who drive everywhere will start paying more of the external costs they incur. See https://rdrf.org.uk/2012/12/31/the-true-costs-of-automobility-external-c...
In terms of fraud prevention, they are proposing use of a mobile gps app to establish 10 months commuting (it's all in the British cycling proposal on their website). Sensible stuff in my opinion as the cycle to work scheme disproportionately benefits higher rate tax payers. Perhaps also consider zero rating cycles/sports gear for VAT (don't have to worry about EU compliance for much longer) as well.
In terms of convincing people to commute by bike, there never is "one" thing that clinches it, it's usually a series of changes that clinch it (see British cycling proposals as well)
jh27 i completelty agree with you on the safety equipment zero vat rated thing ( i also think it should be mandatory for all new cars to have a dash cam fitted btw, and zero rate that aswell)...the problem of course is zero rated items dont make any money for the greedy, backward thinking government. They spend millions on all these 'benefit in kind' money saving schemes for the diesel powered quadracycle (cos they are so good for the environment) but the little man who spends £1800 on an ebike to commute to work doesnt get a penny assistance/encouragement for any of it despite it being probably 95%+ more efficient than a motorvehicle in pollution/congestion/health terms. Meanwhile loads of people at my work who dont cycle to work have bought 2 or even 3 bikes on the 'cycle to work scheme' (which bizzarly is only open to applications for around the summer months (cos nobody ever needs a new bike outside of jun/july/aug) just to get a cheap bike tax free.
Also why the hell is the pence per mile for business cycling so low?
Expense reclaim is supposed to cover the costs of use. As far as I am aware the depreciation on my dream bike would be massive per mile, mmmm cervelo S5 with lightweight wheels - about 30 quid gone each time you hit the brakes!!!
But seriously encourage cycle use by making the pence per mile twice the amount you claim for a car, it might just cover the cost of new tyres, brakes and chains!
When did cycle tyres become more expensive than car tyres?!!!
What tyre are you buying? Conti gp4000s at £30 a wheel. Reckon my car tyres are closer to £200.
Although they do last longer.
Simple way to provide direct benefit back is to allow employee to claim mileage for cycling to/from work through expenses.
company should be allowed to offset the expenses thus claimed from the car park space charges they should be paying.
I'll tell you what they could do (assuming this isn't the case) they could zero rate cycles and cycling equipment. This really ought to be the case already for safety equipment, eg lights, helmets, high viz, bells, horns, reflectors, cameras - just like it is for PPE.
Indeed because I already have a bicycle but need to regularly buy stuff for maintenance; the Cycle to work scheme is a fracking joke because it only helps people buying a new cheap bicycle, and appears to pay nothing for upgrade * and maintenance costs!
* Most cheap bicycles have too cheap components, especially for high mileage use like commuting, so will have to be upgraded eventually.
As for the only Stava counts comment made earlier, that was obviously from a fool with no security awareness; criminals can see where/when you cycle too!
Wow actually that was a joke. And also strava privacy zones around home and work cover that.
Finally I never start or finish my strava outside my house because that would be stupid.
I like the idea of subsidising employers who provide facilities, or penalising those who don't. Where I work there are 20 employees on our site, six of whom cycle to work (3 100%). We have zero cycling facilities, even though our cycling benefits the company (if only freeing up valuable parking space for customers).
I'm not so sure about the individual tax breaks, but then again, I'm probably not the target audience, I haven't even signed up to the cycle to work scheme (not had anyone I know who cycles to work). Cycling to work provides many benefits without direct cash incentives.
You can already claim 20p per mile for business mileage (Mileage Allowance Payments) on a bike such as travelling to a meeting when at work. (But not work to home mileage sadly).
Is it just me or have 3 people COMPLETELY misread jfparis' post?
When there's a history of just 4 posts, it's difficult to tell the spoofs from the trolls. A more comprehensive posting history could have avoided misunderstanding.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I took the wink emoticon as my first clue.
Yes, people are very quick to jump on the rage wagon.
Meanwhile, when is my cheque arriving, or is it paid in Wiggle discount codes?
I will add a big "diclaimer" next time to avoid trouble
They're Trump voters
The Swedish government is proposing tax breaks for the cost of repair bicycles, amongst other things, because they've cut fossil fuel consumption so much at home that the next easiest reduction is to fix broken stuff rather than import new from the Far East. Or we could go the other way, and let billionaires get away with avoiding tax for decades because they bankrupt their casinos. Farage has made his choice, but I know which side the Atlantic I favour.
Briefly worked for a company that paid employees to cycle to work. £1 per day (from memory), claimed by filling in a monthly expenses claim. No checks but was pretty obvious that I was cycling in. Doesn't sound like much but pays for a reasonable bike over 3 yrs.
And how would one prove that one cycles to work? Is there a minimum mileage, minimum number of days?
Nice idea but non starter in the real world.
Better to spend the £250 per head on infrastructure to support cycling, i.e those that cycle will benefit from better facilities and it becomes a more attractive option for more journeys.
how does one prove they cycle to work on the existing cycle to work scheme ? wouldnt the better option be charge £250 per work car parking space, disability badges/low emission cars could be made exempt,then spend that money on improving cycling facilities.
none of the people I know at work who dont already cycle in, say things like "Id cycle if there was £250 tax benefit for me", they say things like "its too much effort", "it always rains", "the roads are really scary to cycle on", "how do I do the school run/the shopping/pick up the dry cleaning" etc etc
I think it's more logical to penalise the car commuters. It seems unfair to provide an incentive to cyclists and not to people walking/skating/running or using public transport. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to charge businesses for the number of used car parking spaces though. If companies are only charged for spaces used on their property, then they'd simply close their parking and employees would have to park in surrounding streets.
Nottingham introduced a workplace parking charge with - I think - the proceeds hypothecated to fund a tram network extension. It's politically easier to tax businesses - they don't vote, and hypothecating the income makes it a more palatable idea (although I don't think anywhere else has taken it up since). A local authority can also control on-street parking too, so it can be joined up.
There are many ways to skin a cat, and while demonstrations of different techniques as suggested by Boardman and Storey are good - the bigger challenge remains persuading central and local government (and the populace) that the cat needs to be skinned in the first place!
If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen.
Agree with spending on infrastructure though. Fact is cycling to work already saves money, if that doesn't provide enough incentive £250 won't make a difference.
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