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Hi guys, probably had plenty of these threads but here goes.
Was talking to the MD yesterday about bikes and he was asking for advice towards buying a mountain bike and he mentioned he was setting up a cycle scheme for our work.
How does the cycle scheme work exactly? As in, There is different schemes that use different stores? Which schemes use which stores?
He's asking me to work out which would be the best for us.
Is there a website listing the different schemes and their stores?
There is different schemes that use different stores? Which schemes use which stores?
Yes. Some schemes are locked into, say, Halfords or Evans. Some you can get a voucher and walk in any bike shop that's signed up to the scheme.
'Cyclescheme' is the most popular and the easiest to work with for the shop (from experience!)
You won't get a sale price bike on it though. Full RRP only as the shop loose 10% of the voucher price to pay for the scheme! but it sells bikes so we like it.
The stores should be on the relevant scheme website.
The best option is to administer a scheme internally. Then you can buy from anywhere with no fee to middle men companies. It's not that hard, and spend a bit of time researching how it works and you can save more than with a commercial scheme.
Basically, company buys a bike, rents it to the employee over 12 months, and then at some point sells it to the employee.
The rental payments are deducted from your pre-tax pay (that's the tax break).
The price at which the company sells the bike to the employee has to be at Fair Market Value (or you owe tax on the difference if you sell for less). The longer you leave it, the lower the FMV is.
You need a bit of paperwork for the rental agreement, but I think Wiggle have some sample contracts.
There's no need for the company to recover its costs: if it wants to be particularly pro-cycling, it can reduce the rental payments and lose money on the deal.