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What is contract hire?

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Contract hire: could it be right for your business and its company cars?

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12 June 2013

Business man ponders using contract hire
Contract hire: could it be right for your business and its company cars?

CONTRACT hire is the most popular way of leasing a business car.

More than half of all new company cars registered each year are funded using contract hire leasing.

So how does it work?

Running a vehicle for business?

Don't leave yourself out of pocket - a guide to what you can claim.

A vehicle is leased to an organisation for a set time and specified mileage, in return for an initial fee (usually between three- to six-months’ rental) and a subsequent monthly charge. At the end of the contractual period, it is returned to the leasing company.

This type of hire removes many of the risks of business car ownership, including depreciation, servicing costs if maintenance is included, and eventual sale.

With contract hire you lease a car over a set period of time and mileage for a monthly lease rate

Meanwhile your business benefits from the car leasing company’s greater buying power and knowledge of the used car market.

However, you could also miss out on any potential benefits of business car ownership, for example, lower than anticipated maintenance costs or an unexpected upturn in the residual value of a particular vehicle.

For most small businesses a three-year time span and an annual 10,000 miles is sufficient. You’ll often see this referred to as a 36 month/30,000 mile agreement. But you can vary it to your requirements.

In between, you drive the car over the agreed mileage. At the end of the agreement it’s returned to the leasing company. As long as the vehicle has been cared for, that’s it.

Because the car is owned by the leasing company, a contract hire vehicle does not have to be shown as an asset on your balance sheet. Some or all of the rental charge can be offset against taxable profits.

The key points to contract hire with maintenance:

  • The contract hire company buys, funds and maintains the vehicle.
  • The customer pays an agreed fee for a set time and mileage.
  • The contract hire company pays all the bills (bar fuel and insurance).
  • The benefits are: capital release (no costly overdrafts, or loans).
  • Less risk (you don’t have to buy and sell the vehicle).
  • Frees up your time to focus on your key business activities.

    Mike Lloyd of Central Contracts
    Mike Lloyd
  • Tax advantages.
  • Cashflow and budget management.
  • Up to 50% of the VAT recoverable on lease for VAT registered businesses (assuming some private mileage)

Further information

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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