Do I buy a car through the business or personally?
It is an exciting moment when your business reaches a point that it can sustain its own vehicle purchase. Depending on your situation and entity type, the potential tax savings or benefits will differ. Something everyone knows, and are often tired of hearing, we all want a clear answer, don’t we? Does the business buy the car or do I buy it personally? This article will give you a bit more clarity when you are facing this decision.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Does my business need a vehicle?
Business use and expenses
Claiming GST
Instant asset write-off
1. Does my business need a vehicle?
Need is not the same as want…while your business might be able to afford a lovely vehicle for you to drive around in, if it’s determined to be not required for you to perform your activities it could attract Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT), but more on that later…
Occupations such as tradesman require work vehicles like a Hilux or other dual cab ute to get from one job to the next, but also to carry their tools and equipment to their customers, so a type of utility vehicle is essential as oppose to them trying to claim a ferarri would be used for the same purpose. There are also several industries that provide delivery and would require a van or if they are more of a mobile service and would need a vehicle to move from one appointment to the next. Consider a 40-hour work week (not that many business owners stick to this limit, but humour me), how many hours would you spend on the road? Do you have a principle place of business and just head out for the ad-hoc meeting? Or are you required to visit your clients on a regular basis?
Of course, many consultants don’t need a vehicle, it’s more of a luxury than necessity and an attractive perk for employees. Necessity would be determined if a vehicle is required in order for you to perform your duties/services. If you’re a home-based business and occasionally attend client appointments, post office etc but out of 5 days a week, you’d maybe attend 4 appointments, a business vehicle might not be essential as you could use your own vehicle and then claim the business-related travel as an expense and reimburse yourself. It would be more of a luxury for your business to own and pay for the associated costs of the vehicle for you to use, but when looking at the % of personal vs business use you will find yourself with a large FBT implication.
If you have a business, whether that be as a sole trader or company, you’d need to determine whether purchasing a vehicle would be a worthy investment. After all, its not just the cost of the vehicle, but also the following which you will need to consider when determing the impace on the bottom line:
Registration
Insurance
Maintenance
Repairs
Servicing
Detailing
Car Wash
Fuel
Modification such as -
Roof racks
Shelving
Phone Docks
Tow Bar
Should I just buy the car in my name?
This depends on what percentage your car mileage will be used for business vs personal. If the car is exclusively for business use, then by all means purchase it in the businesses name.
If you only make a few deliveries a week and use the vehicle predominantly for personal errands and travel, then it might be best to purchase it privately and claim the business use portion on your personal tax return, or reimburse the cost from your business for the expense incurred such as tolls, parking, cents per km travelled.
That’s not to say you can’t use your businesses vehicle for private use also.
If you have a business vehicle that is largely used for business use, but you will have access to it for personal use, such as a quick trip to the shops, school run or any other private travel then that is completely fine, but there will be an FBT implication. Note, even if you don’t use the vehicle for personal use, the fact it’s available for personal use may make it subject to FBT.
2. Business use & expenses
Sole Traders – As a Sole Trader your business and your personal self are considered as the same entity. Business & personal use is a key factor as it determines the portion of vehicle expenses, depreciation & GST credits you can claim.
Companies – A company is its own legal entity (ie. you are not your company), and therefore the car belongs to it. Generally, the expenses of the car are deductible, including depreciation and GST credits. FBT implications may apply if the vehicle is made available for personal use.
Business owned vehicle
Travel between home and work is not considered as business travel, this is a private trip. So be mindful when calculating mileage that these trips are excluded from business use.
The exception to this is if your home is your primary workplace, and then you need to travel to an alternative workplace such as a client or other premises, this would be classified as business use.
Privately owned vehicle
If the vehicle is in your personal name, you can claim a tax deduction on the car expenses for when its been used for business purposes. The two common methods when claiming on your income tax is the logbook method or cent per km.
Logbook
Generally, the logbook method produces a better tax outcome. But you will need to maintain a logbook for at least 12 weeks. This logbook can be used for 5 years if your circumstances stay relatively the same. At which time you need to re-do one. This is done by recording your trip date, opening and closing odometer reading, totalling the kms travelled and the purpose of the trip. Sounds like a lot of work I know, but more often than not this method is beneficial, and you only have to do it once every 5 years.
Click here to download a copy of our printable logbook.
There’s also several phone apps available to keep your logbook electronically. The prior use of spreadsheets are ok, but frowned upon by the ATO as they are easily manipulated retrospectively. Where was a physical form or app is more suitable.
Cents per Kilometre
Alternatively, you can use the cents per km method. In which you can claim up to 5,000 km without any documentation, however you must be able to substantiate how you calculated your km should you be questioned by the ATO. The cents per km rate for FY20 is 66 cents & FY21 is 72 cents. Essentially, you times the amount of km’s you travelled for business use by the years’ rate. For example, 3,290km x 66 cents = $2,171.40 which would be added onto your deductions.
If I own the car personally, can I claim any expenses?
When using the above-mentioned logbook method, you’d come to a relevant percentage value of business use for the year. This percentage is then applied to all car related expenses including, maintenance, petrol, servicing, insurance, registration, depreciation and financing. For example, if the logbook method determines you use the business vehicle 80% of the time, then 80% of all the vehicle related costs would be used as a deduction.
If the company owns the vehicle, what expenses can be claimed?
When the company owns the vehicle, it should be able to claim 100% of the running costs, depreciation, and interest costs. However, FBT will need to be factored in. This cost is owned by the company for making the vehicle available to its staff for private purposes (or director). Such as a vehicle your staff uses for business use, but can drive it home or for odd errands here and there. There is further information on this in next months article, don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter list to be notified. There are some exemptions, so its important to determine the type of vehicle that is optimal for your business activities. Such as a vehicle with the carrying capacity for large loads and tools if you’re a tradie, or a van if you need to make deliveries.
3. Claiming GST
No matter the entity, a sole trader or company, so long as they are registered for GST, then the GST on purchase of the vehicle can be claimed. A maximum GST credit claimable applies and is based on the car limit. For sole traders, you’ll also only be able to claim the business use portion of the vehicle.
If you are a sole trader, for annual running costs of the vehicle, the GST credit is calculated and capped based on the business use percentage.
Car limit
In financial year 19/20 the car limit is $57,581, and in financial year 20/21 it is $59,136. This applies to the cost of passenger vehicles (except a motorcycle or similar) which is designed to carry a load less than one tonne and less than 9 passengers. The tonne capacity refers to the maximum load your vehicle can carry (payload capacity).
The payload capacity is specified by the manufacturer, you can’t determine this rate yourself. The payload capacity = Gross Vehicle Mass – Basic kerb weight.
Some of this may not apply to you, but its important to take note if you use utility vehicles/trucks, etc.
If this is sounding relevant to you, be sure to refer to the below example from the ATO regarding car limits and instant asset threshold limits.
If you purchase a vehicle above the car limit, the maximum amount of GST credit you can claim is one-eleventh of that limit.
For example, you purchase a car for $66,000 in either financial year, you cannot claim $6,000 GST credit, as the value of the car is above the car limit for that year. Instead you’d be able to claim maximum GST credit of $5,234 or $5,376 respectively.
But don’t stress, we are here to help you calculate the correct amount.
4. Instant asset write off
From 12 March 2020 – 31 December 2020 the instant asset write-off threshold for each asset is $150,000 (increased from $30,000).
Generally, you’d be able to instantly write-off a portion of your vehicle purchase to the value of $30,000, and then depreciate the balance as per usual.
With the new threshold being $150,000, that means you can instantly write off that $120,000 Mercedes-Benz? Unfortunately, that is a big resounding NO!
Generally speaking, for a passenger carrying vehicle the instant asset write-off is maxed out at the car limit for that financial year. These limits were mentioned above in the car limit explanation.
However, if the vehicle you’ve purchased has a carrying capacity of more than one tonne, but less than 9 passengers and is used only for business purposes, then the car limit would not apply.
The following example is an exert from the ATO site
If you’d like to know more about the new instant asset write off thresholds please get in contact, we’d be happy to assist you in working out how it applies to you. We can go over the instant asset write off & depreciation and what they mean and if they are of any value when determining whether to buy an asset or not.
I hope this article helped clear some things up for you. It is a pretty big decision to purchase a vehicle through your business or privately. They both come with their own pros and cons.
At the end of the day it comes down to who uses the vehicle more, you or the business.
And if the answer is you personally, but you still want to purchase it through the business, that’s fine, you’ll just need to consider the additional tax implications.
Working with us means we will help you decipher what is the best car investment for you and your business. We would look at your business activities, cost, affordability and best structure to suit you and your business.
Get in contact with us so that we can make this work for you in this financial year.