Top Gear

Happily not seen hide or hair of him for over a year.

 

Bit old to be boys - funmen?

 

Andy Bonwick says...

And his insurance, something else I don't pay. It would cost me more to
insure a 1.3 Belmont than I pay in tax on the Golf each year.

 

And this is all, when proven to be business related miles, set against tax,
as are the maintenance costs etc...

This is one of the reasons why I currently run a shite old BMW as 'my' car,
as well as the Golf - 'But I do a thousand private miles a year, if that, in
the Golf, Mr IR Cuntybollocks'.

I think you'll find that if you're playing by the book, company car wise,
you're supposed to pay tax relating to the benefit of 'free fuel', if that's
the arrangement you have with your employer.

Swings and roundabouts, innit.

It's just a case of somehow working out which ones work best for you... and
something I need to speak to a beancounter about in the not so distant
future.

 

Simon Atkinson says...

Result

 

Yes, but I turn over that much more money than if I were employed by someone
else, and costs like these are set against the tax owed on this money -
that's the point... 'swings and roundabouts'.

I accept it's more hassle, mind... and a bloody taxation minefield for which
I am imminently going to seek 'sound professional advice'.

FWIW, I reckon I'd be looking to get the figures checked out on what you're
paying - last thing you want is for the taxman to suddenly work out you've
not been paying enough, and demand that you catch up asap, cos a brief look
at the rules / values etc., suggests to me you're not paying enough...

Not that I'm sure of that, but better to find out now than when you've had
the underpaid benefit for years; the IR don't **** about when people owe
them money.

 

Oh... ok.

*sniffle*

 

JackH says...

I questioned it already, the company work it out with regard to my
mileage forms and they are happy that all is in order.

Having a company car is just so much cheaper and easier for me.

 

I know the feeling. I'm waiting for the housing market to crash

I reckon it'll crash when the post war baby boom generation (in which I
count myself) start thinking they need to sell houses to trade down and
finance their pensions.

 

On me way Sah... As soon as the trains are running again.

I won't hold my breath then.

 

....and there was me aspiring to owning two or three houses I could rent out
in my dotage, to finance my retirement.

 

IMO dream on. I don't think house prices will crash but I don't see the rate
of house price inflation continuing as it has over the last 40 years. You've
only got to look at some of the more depressed parts of the UK to see there
is no immutable law propping up house prices.

The best time to have retired in recent years (if you could have arranged
it) was a some years ago while interest rates were high and you got a good
annuity, and just before they fell so the annuity retained its value.

 

Proximity to bookshops, jazz venues, and widespread prostitution.

hth

 

Ben Blaney says...

If it's all too close to hand then there's scarcely a reason for Simes
to dress up in his best demob suit and venture into the big city.

 

You've made my point for me. I can jump on a chuffa-train and be in
the big city in 45 to 50 minutes. That's plenty near enough.

 

But you can't get back past midnight.

 

I think this is bollocks.

Britain is a small island. There is an absolutely finite quantity of
land. The population has been growing for millennia. People like to own
their own house.

So, fixed supply; constant and growing demand....

What's likely to change that? Either a massive reduction in the
population, or an equally massive change in the way the British choose
to live.

Sure, there are always areas that are depressed or fall out of fashion
but, overall, land is, over time, probably the safest investment of all,
at least in the UK.

 

Buy one property. Live in it, pay the mortgage on time, every month.

Eventually, buy another (once you've got the deposit together), and buy
somewhere with a high demand for rented accomodation such as here (plenty of
higher education institutions).

Buy this 'to let'.

Do the math and make sure the rent achieved will cover the mortgage,
insurance (and maintenance related stuff) in the beginning, and any likely
interest rate increases in the short term. If it won't for the first few
years, make sure you've enough else going on to be able to cover this in the
event of tenants defaulting on rent etc., or swallow the cost of going
through a good agency that offers decent guarantees regarding payment etc.

Repeat until you can comfortably rename yourself 'Nicholas Van Hoogstraten'.

Property for rent has always been, and will continue to be, in demand,
especially in and around towns and cities with Universities.

As for the housing market in the UK... in case you hadn't noticed, this
place is quite popular. This is why the Government has ordered that
thousands of new homes should be built over the next few years.

And it's not enough to keep pace with the demand to the point that it would
effect a permanent downward reduction in the prices of property, by looks of
it.

People are still breeding (worst luck), and I can't see this place becoming
that unpopular, and emptying in my lifetime.

 

Au contraire - Thameslink run nearly all night as far as Bedford - then
taxi home in time for brekky.

Not that I actually do this. But I could.

 

'There is no clique'