Buying a bike for partner via Cycle2Work...

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

small fish

Well-Known Member
Location
Manchester
My other half needs a new bike... her employer doesn't do cycle2work and mine does.
What are the chances of getting into trouble if I buy a bike in my name but wifey uses it..?

(I got myself a bike via the scheme this year so it would be my second purchase. If we do go this route it would almost certainly be a ladies specific model, so if anyone checks the paperwork it might be obvious that I'm male and buying a female bike...)
 
I worked in a bike shop in york and they do c2w. The thing is c2w is there to get you/wife/kids on a bike we have sorted bikes out for kids ie bike size 14 and the dad was 6.2feet? no one will check the paper work. If you wish you can get the LBS to but the form on the internet its quicker as well. the thing is so many people just go for a cheep bike on c2w WHY its a good chance to get a good bike cheeper!. and you can get some bits thown in as well as the voucher you get is like cash to the shop (but they do lose 5%) on c2w. even if the voucher is made out to the shop you can get it changed to another so you can back out.
 
The rules say that the bike is to be used mainly for commuting, so there's no reason why you can't borrow your wife's bike from time to time. Buying a bloke's bike on her employer's scheme is likely to be a no no.
 

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
Slim to none - I was aided and abetted in the same thing by my helpful LBS :biggrin:

I could borrow it occasionally, might look a bit odd mind, a 5'11 bloke on a 46.5cm Giant SCR3W but it'd be locked up as necessary if needs be!
 
OP
OP
S

small fish

Well-Known Member
Location
Manchester
Good point about riding it in occasionally - that might just cover me though she quite likes the retro Pashley kind of bike and I'm not sure if I'm brave enough...

I had a read of the 'rules' and it looks like the worst that can happen if you buy a bike and don't commute on it is that you become liable for the tax saved.
 

CarnageAX

New Member
Location
Lancashire, UK
Someone at my place of work bought two bikes, one for himself and one for his wife, using the vouchers available.

The shop he bought them from even gave him a discount for buying a pair!!!!
Can't see what the legal implications were though.
 

doyler78

Well-Known Member
Location
Co Down, Ireland
CarnageAX said:
Someone at my place of work bought two bikes, one for himself and one for his wife, using the vouchers available.

The shop he bought them from even gave him a discount for buying a pair!!!!
Can't see what the legal implications were though.

The legal implications are tax evasion. A very serious criminal offence or am I mistaken?

To do this you are knowingly seeking to reduce your VAT, national insurance and income tax payments by using the scheme in a way in which the scheme does not permit and thus you are defrauding the HMRC/Treasury of the money saved.

Any organisation knowingly permitting this would be criminally responsible and that could include your employer and/or the cycle shop.

Abuse of the scheme in the manner described will only allow Government an easy excuse to remove the scheme and thereby denying everyone the benefit of it.
 

killiekosmos

Veteran
CarnageAX said:
Someone at my place of work bought two bikes, one for himself and one for his wife, using the vouchers available.

The shop he bought them from even gave him a discount for buying a pair!!!!
Can't see what the legal implications were though.

The scheme requires you use the bike 50% of time/distance. So with two bikes, week about, commuting every day should be OK
 

abchandler

Senior Member
Location
Worcs, UK
killiekosmos said:
The scheme requires you use the bike 50% of time/distance. So with two bikes, week about, commuting every day should be OK

No it doesn't, it requires 50% of the bike's use be for commuting, not used 50% of your time!!

Once a year is enough, if you only ride it twice
 

doyler78

Well-Known Member
Location
Co Down, Ireland
abchandler said:
No it doesn't, it requires 50% of the bike's use be for commuting, not used 50% of your time!!

Once a year is enough, if you only ride it twice

Well that's not strictly true either. It must be used for 50% of the time for cummuting, as you say, however any work related bike travel will also count towards it (eg if you use your bike to travel between work sites).

As to killiekosmos's response lets be clear on this also. Distance has absolutely nothing to do with it. It is purely a time based measure.
 

Kirst

Well-Known Member
Location
Edinburgh
Employees of my company are not allowed to use the Bike to Work scheme if they've already used it so you wouldn't be able to do it. You might want to check that you're not specifically excluded because you've already used the scheme once.
 
Top Bottom