SE31235 - Employees using their own vehicles for work: rules from 2002/03 onwards - definitions - "company vehicle" and what counts as the employee's own vehicle

Paragraph 6, Schedule 12AA ICTA 1988 as introduced by Section 57 and Schedule 12 FA 2001

The rules on AMAPs and MAR apply only to the employee's use for business travel of a vehicle that satisfies the following conditions:

• it is a qualifying vehicle (see SE31230) and
• it is not a "company vehicle".

A vehicle is a "company vehicle" if any of the following conditions are satisfied:

• it attracts a car, van or general (section 154 ICTA 1988) benefit charge
• in the case of a car or van, the vehicle is made available by reason of the employee's employment but does not attract a car or van benefit charge as it is only available for business travel
• in the case of a car or van, it is covered by the pooled cars and vans rules
• in the case of a cycle, the employee would have been taxable on a benefit in respect of it, if the exemption described at SE21664 had not applied.

In broad terms, what this means is that a vehicle is a "company vehicle" excluded from the AMAPs arrangements unless it is the employee's own vehicle. But this goes wider than a vehicle that is directly and personally owned by the employee. The way the definition is worded means that the AMAPs and MARs rules will still apply if, for example, the employee uses his or her spouse's car instead of his or her own car (provided of course that the spouse's car is not itself a "company vehicle").