SE66710 - Tax treatment of National Health Service employees: payments for using own car for work - GWC and HMDS payment schemes

Make sure you are familiar with the material at SE66705 before reading this page.

Although payments made under the General Whitley Council 'GWC') and Hospital Medical and Dental Staff ('HMDS') rules are different in amount, both schemes provide for payments for business travel to be made to

• standard users at a given rate per mile
• regular users by means of a lump sum plus a given rate per mile.

(Note that NHS employers which have chosen to pay mileage allowances under their own schemes are also likely to recognise 'standard' and 'regular' users. You need to compare the actual rates paid for particular car engine sizes in order to work out whether or not the centrally agreed rates are being used).

Under the centrally agreed schemes the given rate per mile varies according to car engine size. The engine size categories are different for the GWC and the HMDS schemes.

Under the GWC scheme engine sizes are divided into the following classes:

Under the HMDS scheme engine sizes are divided into the following classes:

Important note:

Both the statutory rules and the administrative arrangements for dealing with mileage payments are replaced by the new statutory scheme for approved mileage allowance payments (AMAPs) that applies from 2002/03 onwards. Full guidance on the AMAP scheme is at SE31250 onwards.

Rules up to and including 2001/02

Depending on the costs incurred by the individual employee, and/ or the engine size of the car used, the allowances may exceed the business proportion of the expenses of running a car, or the Inland Revenue’s authorised mileage rates for that particular car (see SE31840 onwards). In these circumstances you will not be able to agree a dispensation (see SE30051 onwards) for motor mileage allowances, and therefore the employer will need to make end of year returns. See SE30200 onwards for details of the options open to employers for reporting mileage allowances not covered by a dispensation. Most NHS employers use either the Fixed Profit Car Scheme profit tables system of reporting or else the Car Allowances Enhanced Reporting Scheme.

Where the Car Allowances Enhanced Reporting Scheme is used, follow the guidance at SE30200 onwards. Where the Fixed Profit Car Scheme profit tables system is used for the taxation of the profit from the nationally negotiated car allowances see SE66715 onwards.