Can Landlords Claim Car Leasing Costs?

If you wish to claim motor expenses against your direct rental income then the mileage method is best as it is simple to administer. You just need to keep a log of how much mileage you travel for business purposes. This will entail keeping a journey by journey log for business journeys and, in a perfect world, an opening and closing mileage for each journey. Practically just the mileage for each journey will do.
If you wish to try to apportion all your motor costs then you ill have to keep a similar log for private journeys as well. All expenses and receipts would have to be accounted for and apportioned.
If you set up a separate managment company then this should be fine as the company is considered to be a separte legal entity to you personally. If you can make your wife/partner/offspring as co shareholders then they could have a salary comensurate with the work they do for the comapny and surplus profits can be extracted as dividends, saving on the amount of tax payable on the income.
However it may not be economical to run a car through the company, you(/your accountant) would have to “do the math” to see it it would work as it depends on the individual circumstances.

If you wish to try to apportion all your motor costs then you ill have to keep a similar log for private journeys as well. All expenses and receipts would have to be accounted for and apportioned

If the vehicle is a pick up truck / van then any private incidental mileage doesn’t need to be logged and apportioned. https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-company-vans/whats-exempt

HMRC use the one tonne payload rule to differentiate vans from cars in what would otherwise be a grey area. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/EIM23150.htm

For me I have a dedicated 1T pick Up wholly and exclusively for my Lettings business, carrying tools, paint, rubbish etc. It wouldn’t be practical for me to get my own car grubby just for 45p per mile. I guess it depends how nice your car is and how dirty your tenants are 😉

Just my idea for the OP – please DYOR

Reply to the comment left by “Roanch 21” at “05/07/2015 – 20:06“:

My reading of the link (and related pages) is that you DO have to account for private mileage on vans.

1. it says “Vans and fuel used for private journeys are exempt if your employee earns at a rate of less than £8,500 a year.” This means it is about private use by employees.
2. You are not an employee.
3. The next page says directors have to pay for private use.

Hey Paul,
I also agree with Mark Alexander, you can it will be beneficial for you and your business. Thanks