Company car, pros and cons?

[St_Claire, ADN, RN]

The home health agency I work for is considering getting company cars for the nurses. We have a meeting about it Wednesday and we can ask questions. I don't even know where to begin aside from "can we use them for personal use?" And "what are the tax ramifications and cost to us?"

What else should we be asking?

[FD-HH]

Typically you would drive your own vehicle to work and take a company car from there. Per IRS regulations, any personal use of the vehicle cannot be written off so I imagine that Administration would not allow you to take the car for personal use. You would also have to keep a mileage log to log visits (client, insurance, etc) for among other things, cost report purposes.

Things to ask:

How are company vehicles issued?

Are you responsible for gas?

[amoLucia]

Insurance ---- what's their policy like? And you'll need to make sure you're appropriately insured and licensed too.

Are you permitted to transport anyone else in the car - like pts and/or their family or care givers? Like to their appts?

[St_Claire, ADN, RN]

It turns out to be an incredible offer. They will supply the car, full coverage insurance, gas for personal and business use (we get a credit card), and we keep the car just like it belongs to us. We drive it like its our own car. We weren't allowed to transport patients before and we still won't.

We were given three models to choose from. The employee pays $300 per month and that includes everything. Right now I pay more than $300 a month for just gas, not to mention my insurance.

I test drove one today and I'm thrilled

[amoLucia]

Just be careful. I had a car assigned to me YEARS AGO and there was something about having to declare for income tax purposes. I only did it for such a short time - a month or so. It never affected my tax status so I don't have much info. Just be aware... You don't want to get hit later on.

[St_Claire, ADN, RN]

Just be careful. I had a car assigned to me YEARS AGO and there was something about having to declare for income tax purposes. I only did it for such a short time - a month or so. It never affected my tax status so I don't have much info. Just be aware... You don't want to get hit later on.

That was a huge concern for us as well. You are taxed on the amount of personal miles you drive. We off set the vast majority of that with the money we pay each month for the car.

[salvadordolly]

Wow, I wish my company would do this. sounds like a good deal.

[St_Claire, ADN, RN]

Wow I wish my company would do this. sounds like a good deal.[/quote']

It's a win/win for all parties. The only people not interested in our office are those with a newer car and a payment already because they do not want both payments. I could send you the contact info if you would like them to contact your employer. When they approached our administrator they gave a brief run down and he said, "what's the catch?" There wasn't one. Then the company did a slide show and question and answer session. They said if we wanted some fanfare they would deliver the cars all at once and bring cake and balloons. :-)