Working from Motorhome

Hi everyone,

My question is about motorhomes but also about accounting. Hope someone can help me :)
I'm about to buy a motorhome and will be working remotely from there. I would like to know, as a owner of an IT consultancy limited company, I can use my business to pay for the motorhome. Eg: buy it as a business asset, or rent from my self as a business office, or anything else that covers the cost of the motorhome
PS: I'm a UK resident, the business is also registered in the UK, but the motorhome is from a European country.

Thanks ;)
You don't say where you would be working in the moho - UK, EU, elsewhere. Don't know whether this would affect the tax situation, but you might also need to check whether it would be strictly legal to work in the moho in the EU (since Brexit) for example.
 
As @GeoffL says above, not all insurers offer commuting cover as standard. I have experience of both situations.
I find that very odd as the majority of people work for a living and go by car, even though we are both retired it's on our policy.
 
I find that very odd as the majority of people work for a living and go by car, even though we are both retired it's on our policy.
You can find it as odd as you like; that does not prevent it from being a fact. My policy certificate with QuoteMeHappy in 2012/2013 stated amongst the exclusions: "Use for travel to and from a place of paid employment or for business purposes." An earlier policy (RAC/Aviva) stated (inter alia): "There will be no cover if the car is used for commuting between home and work,".
 
You can find it as odd as you like; that does not prevent it from being a fact. My policy certificate with QuoteMeHappy in 2012/2013 stated amongst the exclusions: "Use for travel to and from a place of paid employment or for business purposes." An earlier policy (RAC/Aviva) stated (inter alia): "There will be no cover if the car is used for commuting between home and work,".
Getting a bit adversarial here, not intending to argue, it's a forum and we all have different experiences, I'm sure you are speaking from fact, no point in doing otherwise, we always go with defacto 5 insurers, maybe they operate differently, I'm just speaking from our own experience.
 
I sit corrected, I just dug out the policy, we are not covered for commuting.

Fiesta%20policy.jpg
 
FWIW, Markerstudy is a very common Insurance Underwriter and used by many brokers that specialise in Motorhome and Campervan insurance. They almost always provide no cover for any work-related driving. I think it was AIB I took a policy out with a few years ago and the policy had to be unwritten by a different company when I wanted business use.

My current Motorhome policy with AIB is purely Social, Domestic and Pleasure as I decided to not do any mobile installation work post-Pandemic, so no point in paying the extra, but still have full cover on the Car Policy:
Usage SDPC and Business Use (Proposer/Spouse Only)
 
A few years ago we went with BG insurance who used Markerstudy, we had a few issues and it took ages to sort out a none fault claim we had, so I Googled them, not impressed.


 
Can’t see why you can’t purchase a Motorhome and have it as a company vehicle, fairlysyre that bit is okay but check with an accountant
There is nothing AFAICT to prevent your company from purchasing a motorhome for you to use for business purposes (i.e. as accommodation while working at a client location). However, HMRC got very shirty a decade or so ago and deemed that if my panel van/mobile office was kept at my personal address (even though that was also my company's registered address) then it would be deemed a benefit in kind on which I would be liable for personal tax -- even if my company passed a resolution forbidding personal use. I have no idea what they'd assess the benefit for a motorhome. However, for a company van it's currently £3,500 with £669 for fuel (source: clicky link) If they assess the moho as a car, it can be even worse -- I just did a calculation for a pre-2020 'car' with list price £40,000 when new, with a diesel engine larger than 2 litre, with no CO2 emissions figure available and where the user pays for 'private fuel'. The benefit in kind was £14,800 pa. (clicky link to HMRC calculator)
Notwithstanding the tax issues above, you still to sort out the right insurance...
As others have said, you probably should take advice from your accountant.
 
You can use a motorhome as a welfare vehicle on site. The daily hire of such a vehicle is between £250 and £400 per day it has to have a toilet a place to change and wash with hot water it must also have a first aid kit.
 
You can use a motorhome as a welfare vehicle on site. The daily hire of such a vehicle is between £250 and £400 per day it has to have a toilet a place to change and wash with hot water it must also have a first aid kit.

But then surely you have to pay personal tax on the daily hire? So you're no better off? If ltd company then you'd probably be worse off. Or am I missing something?
 
But then surely you have to pay personal tax on the daily hire? So you're no better off? If ltd company then you'd probably be worse off. Or am I missing something?
What you're missing is that any reimbursement for facilities or equipment you personally provide for work is tax free. When you pay for something for business use, you pay from your personal income that has already been taxed and hence any personal tax on the reimbursement would be double taxation. So if a daily rate for provision of "welfare facilities" could be agreed with HMRC, that amount should be payable by the company to the individual tax free and the company should also be entitled to offset that amount against tax.
 
You can use a motorhome as a welfare vehicle on site. The daily hire of such a vehicle is between £250 and £400 per day it has to have a toilet a place to change and wash with hot water it must also have a first aid kit.
Thanks @Wully. Thanks @GeoffL . I didn't know that. This really helps. I guess the question now is to know if the business can rent it from me as a private, which mean that I would need to inform HMRC through self assessment tax return or if I should create a welfare vehicle business and have the motorhome as an asset to rent it out
 
What you're missing is that any reimbursement for facilities or equipment you personally provide for work is tax free. When you pay for something for business use, you pay from your personal income that has already been taxed and hence any personal tax on the reimbursement would be double taxation. So if a daily rate for provision of "welfare facilities" could be agreed with HMRC, that amount should be payable by the company to the individual tax free and the company should also be entitled to offset that amount against tax.
Are you sure about that?
Taking Wullys example .. "You can use a motorhome as a welfare vehicle on site. The daily hire of such a vehicle is between £250 and £400 per day it has to have a toilet a place to change and wash with hot water it must also have a first aid kit."
So you personally out of your own funds buy an old motorhome for £10k (yes, out of taxed income).
You then provide it to your own company (for use by yourself as a company employee) as Wully describes and earn over £1k a week in hire fees. for a full working year of approx 46 weeks, you have taken £48k for an outlay of £10k.
You have earned £38,000 tax-free even if the Motorhome is scrap after a year. Your company (you again) have removed £48,000 of taxable income from your companies (yours) earnings and so reduced your tax bill by around say £30,000 (Tax plus NI), giving you an extra £68,000 free of tax by using your own motorhome for work.
Hmmm... sorry, but I doubt that flies with HMRC.
 
Also what is the position when you are using the vehicle for leisure purposes Both taxwise and insurance.
The op seems to have inadvertently gone into the area of tax avoidance or indeed evasion ?
 
Are you sure about that?
Taking Wullys example .. "You can use a motorhome as a welfare vehicle on site. The daily hire of such a vehicle is between £250 and £400 per day it has to have a toilet a place to change and wash with hot water it must also have a first aid kit."
So you personally out of your own funds buy an old motorhome for £10k (yes, out of taxed income).
You then provide it to your own company (for use by yourself as a company employee) as Wully describes and earn over £1k a week in hire fees. for a full working year of approx 46 weeks, you have taken £48k for an outlay of £10k.
You have earned £38,000 tax-free even if the Motorhome is scrap after a year. Your company (you again) have removed £48,000 of taxable income from your companies (yours) earnings and so reduced your tax bill by around say £30,000 (Tax plus NI), giving you an extra £68,000 free of tax by using your own motorhome for work.
Hmmm... sorry, but I doubt that flies with HMRC.
If you rent out the motorhome to your company then the hire fees received will be taxable (worse, HMRC might even consider that you are acting as a sole trader for the purposes of the hire and demand class 2 and class 4 NICs!)
However, if you provide your own welfare facilities and claim for the provision as a personal business expense (for which your company reimburses you) that reimbursement -- up to what HMRC agree to be reasonable -- will be tax free in the same way as IRAM mileage and subsistence are. You wouldn't be claiming the commercial hire rates that @Wully cited. It would also be important to run whatever is proposed by the HMRC -- and get their agreement that the expenses to be claimed are reasonable. Again, something for an accountant?
 
The OP is online now so maybe we'll get his view of the suggestions soon.
 
What you're missing is that any reimbursement for facilities or equipment you personally provide for work is tax free. When you pay for something for business use, you pay from your personal income that has already been taxed and hence any personal tax on the reimbursement would be double taxation. So if a daily rate for provision of "welfare facilities" could be agreed with HMRC, that amount should be payable by the company to the individual tax free and the company should also be entitled to offset that amount against tax.

I don't think so. Joe Bloggs is earning money renting his personal motorhome out, so it is taxable. It doesn't matter who it's being rented to.
 

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