SE23803 - Pooled cars and vans: meaning of "not normally kept overnight"

Section 159(2)(c) ICTA 1988

You can accept that a car is not normally kept overnight at employees' homes if the total number of nights on which it is taken home by employees - for whatever reason - is less than 60 per cent of the total number of nights in the period under review.

This 60 per cent test is no more than a rule of thumb which you can apply in order to reach a reasonable settlement in most cases. The general public are aware of it because it is mentioned in Booklet 480 (“Expenses and Benefits - a tax guide”) and Booklet 490 Section 3.48. However, if it should be necessary to consider the interpretation of section 159(2)(c) ICTA 1988 in an appeal before the Commissioners, rely on the statutory definition rather than this rule of thumb.

Note that if a car or van is taken home often enough to approach the 60 per cent limit - though without breaking it - it is unlikely that all the home to work journeys will satisfy the “merely incidental” test in SE23801.