Month: August 2014

Would you borrow from PayPal?

Bank loan

The PayPal Working Capital fund will be trialled in the UK this autumn, with a more extensive rollout scheduled for 2015. Merchants (including eBay sellers) will be able to repay their advance with a share of their PayPal sales via card payments.

PayPal Working Capital is a loan of a fixed amount, with a single fixed fee. There are no due dates, minimum monthly payments, periodic interest charges, late fees, pre-payment fees, penalty fees, or any other fees. When you apply, simply select the amount you want — up to the maximum you qualify for. You choose the percentage of your sales that will be deducted from your PayPal account. (Deductions are made the day following each day of sales.) You’ll pay this percentage of your sales until your balance is repaid in full. You only make payments when you get paid.

PayPal Working Capital state that Working Capital offers major advantages compared with traditional ways of funding a business:

• Funding in minutes – PayPal’s strong relationship with its business customers means we can approve an advance based on their PayPal sales history. This means the customer completes a quick online application – there’s no need to spend hours gathering information about their business. And PayPal can make a decision and provide the funds in minutes.

• Pay when you get paid – Unlike traditional bank loans, PayPal Working Capital allows a business to repay the advance with a share of their PayPal sales. If they have a day without any PayPal sales that’s fine – they don’t repay anything that day.

• No credit check – PayPal Working Capital is a merchant cash advance against future sales – it’s not a loan – so no credit checks are needed and the advance does not impact on the customer’s business or personal credit record. There is a single, fixed fee that is displayed to the customer before they sign up. There are no interest charges or late payment fees.

Is this something your business will be able to use? or want to use?

steve@bicknells.net

 

 

 

How do you prove ‘No Private Use’ of a company car?

Black Elegant Vintage Car

I spotted this case on the HMRC website the other day…

Elm Milk Ltd 2006 STC 792

A business bought a car for its managing director. It recorded a resolution that the car was for business use only. The managing director had another car that was used for private journeys.

The Court held that there was no reason why a car could not be made unavailable for private use by suitable contractual restraints, and that a company could enter into a binding employment contract with its sole director. Therefore, on the facts of the case, the car was available for business use only and input tax could be reclaimed.

The court held that HMRC had given too much weight to the physical constraints and insurance and should have focused on contractual constraints, the employment contract and board minutes.

The following case is also very interesting…

The ‘Shaw’ case

In the Shaw case the taxpayer bought two BMW X5 vehicles together, one for use in his farm business, the other for use privately. Mr Shaw also owned two other cars privately as well. HMRC [again] argued the case based on the social and domestic cover on the insurance policy, but Mr Shaw rebutted this by showing how the insurance policy for his combine harvester had ‘social, domestic and pleasure’ cover too! He added that the premiums for both the X5s and the harvester were lower as a result.

Read more at http://www.taxationweb.co.uk/tax-articles/vat-excise-duties/vat-recovery-on-cars-%e2%80%93-have-recent-cases-put-the-skids-under-the-hmrc-available-for-private-use.html#IGw1K8iiudfeTTuX.99

If there is No Private Use then there is no benefit in kind and no fuel scale charges.

So what should you do to prove there is no private use:

  1. Keep the car on the company’s business premises
  2. Keep the keys at the company’s business premises
  3. Prepare a Board Minute
  4. Makesure your contract of employment bans private use
  5. Keep a mileage log
  6. Insure the car principally for business use

Unlike Pool Cars you don’t have to prove it was available to other employees

steve@bicknells.net