Claiming back VAT on a one off car rental?

[billybob99]

If I rent an electric car to visit a client at £50 + VAT a day for 1 day, can I claim back 100% of the VAT?

There is conflicting info online, some saying if you lease a car for a long period you can claim back 50% of the VAT but if you are renting a car for short periods, you can claim back 100% of the VAT.

The reason I am renting is I don't want to rack up a ton of miles on my personal car.

I read on the Gov website:

If you hire a car for another reason (eg you don’t have a company car), you can reclaim all the VAT if all the following apply:

• you hire it for no more than 10 days
• it’s used only for business
• it’s not available for private use

So I would assume I can claim back 100% VAT but just good to get another opinion.

 

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

So long as you're not bringing it home (so its not available for private use) then I'd say based on the above yes.

 

[lesvatadvice]

The 'not available for private use' test is pretty strict. It is not enough to say you will not bring it home. HMRC Notice 700/64, para 3.6 explains more, although not very well!

 

[billybob99]

The 'not available for private use' test is pretty strict. It is not enough to say you will not bring it home. HMRC Notice 700/64, para 3.6 explains more, although not very well!

I agree, this is gobbledigook;

3.6 ‘Making it available for private use’
A car is available for private use when there’s nothing preventing you or your employee from using the car for private use. The fact that you bought your car for the purpose of your business is not the only requirement. You need to ensure that the car is not made available to anyone else.

I would say how can it be private use, if I leave my house, walk to the car rental place, do the stuff that is required, get the key and get in the car and drive to my clients location, then drive back from clients location back to the car rental place.

 

[GillespieBS]

If you look hard enough you will probably discover that you have a car policy that states no employee is allowed to use the company hired vehicle for private use.

As such that prevents you from using it privately.