[Closed] Cycle to work - £1000 company limit

There is no limit, that limit is your company limit. I believe the C2W tax free allowance had the limit raise ages ago.

Depends on the shop. I've done the latter option before, but also had several shops refuse anything over a grand

Iirc, companies need to apply for a credit license if it’s over £1000.
(Or perhaps, a different credit license)
That’s why some companies stick to 1k.

As above, 1k limit is due to your company not increasing their license and issuing the letter, so officially you can pick a bike and specific items for up to 1k, even if you find a company that will do a deal, is it really worth it for 33% of the cost, again that bike you have invested 2k in will not be yours officially until after a few years, you'll save 250 quid in tax, but realistically you could probably save similar by doing 3k over 4 years interest free, without any of the baggage that C2W comes with.

The C2W scheme is regulated by one of the consumer credit acts, basically unless the company providing the loan, i.e. your employer, has a license then the value of the bike is limited to £1000.00. Doesn't matter if you offer to pay the difference, it's the value of the goods being bought that's limited, open to fraud if it wasn't like that.

In 2019, the government removed the traditional £1000 <b>limit</b> for the Cycle2Work scheme – great news, as this made many more bikes available under the scheme! However, the amount you can spend on your Cycle2Work scheme still depends on your employer who chooses the <b>limit</b>.

It's up to the company to set the limit. My employer has refused to increase the limit, they claim it's to keep things fair; every employee can get the £1000 without dropping below MNW but if they were to increase the limit it would be preferential towards the higher paid employees. Obviously, paying higher wages didn't figure in their calculations...

I added £51 to my last C2W purchase. I could have got the full amount (£550) but there is a significant increase in the cost of ownership at £499.01 and it made sense to pay the difference.

https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/cycle-to-work-scheme-any-price

Can I still add funds (or 'top up')?

• No. To improve clarity on this topic and ensure there is no shared ownership, the DfT confirmed in the guidance update that adding funds is no longer allowable. If you wish to get a bike worth more than £1,000 your employer must agree to increase their limit.

companies need to apply for a credit license if it’s over £1000.

Daft when at my last company they “lent” £200k to each of the 4 owners with no license.

There is no limit, that limit is your company limit. I believe the C2W tax free allowance had the limit raise ages ago.

Not strictly true, you are limited by what you earn

This is taken from the Cyclescheme websitse

Earn at least minimum wage after the salary sacrifice has been taken from your pay

So if what you want makes your take home pay drop below the minimum wage then you cant get what you want

A couple of people found this out at work recently, they wanted to spend 2-2.5k on a bike but because it would drop them below the minimum wage they were refused

The most they could have was 1.2k

Was quite odd as they could go get a loan for 2-2.5k and buy the bike they wanted and it was no problem

It wouldn't have been a governed tax benefit though, companies can 'lend' money to employees, but with the appropriate taxation being implemented, the main difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.

The shops aren't allowed to take a top up over the voucher value, its in the t&cs of the scheme.

However you can use the voucher to buy anything bike related not just a whole bike. Some shops will be quite happy to sell you a frame for the value of the voucher and then you pay extra for the components.........

People thinking they can add cash on to c2w schemes really need to get a better understanding of what c2w is.

No you cant because you can't have shared ownership of the bike.... C2w bikes are owned by your employer until the final payment and end of what is effectively lease hire (3yrs?). Same goes for upgrades - keep all of the old bits, the company owns them not you.

It's also upto the company what the final payment is on the bike - the gov guidelines are quite clear on 2nd hand value of bikes.... So you may end up saving nothing if he/payroll have a clear understanding.

Local LBS would often tell me I could top up the £1k limit as it was at the time - then change their mind when I mentioned my employer was HMRC.

You usually end up paying for the C2W voucher via a hire agreement which is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act and this would normally require your employer to hold FCA authorisation and permissions to set up the hire agreement, however there is am exemption for C2W schemes which used to be capped at £1000. So employers without FCA authorisation could only set up hire agreements up a grand previously, but the government removed the cap.

This means that there is no limit (apart from it not taking you under minimum wage) under the government C2W framework. This does not mean however that your own employer can't impose their own cap on the scheme. My employer for example caps things at £2000.

Officially at least, retailers are not meant to allow top ups over the voucher amount but plenty do.

Retailers are not supposed to charge you a fee for paying with a C2W voucher either but again some do (e.g Bird pass the fee they get charged for redeeming the voucher onto customers).

I'm sure you could find a shop willing to bend the rules and let you top up.

There's not a lot of risk in doing this, but there is some - my friend made a side deal with a shop and paid £1000 via the voucher and £1500 himself for a £2.5k bike which ended up getting knicked. But as the only proof of purchase he had when providing info to the insurance was for £1000, his insurance wouldn't pay out the full amount. The shop put £1000 as the price of the bike on his invoice, and £1500 as something else.

Also don't forget if its a small company they are effectively lending you the money. So they might just not have the cash to allow lots of employees to have high value bikes.

Is it 2008 or something? Are people still trying to fiddle C2W?

Do you actually need a £3k commuter, or is this C2W being used to fund another Gnarpoon?

Is it 2008 or something? Are people still trying to fiddle C2W?

Do you actually need a £3k commuter, or is this C2W being used to fund another Gnarpoon?

E-Bikes.