On your bike

One of my clients has taken out a subscription for a ‘Boris bike’. It involves paying a £45 annual subscription and a one-off £3 signing-up fee which entitles him to access bicycles for hire in London for up to 30 minutes at a time (or longer for a small fee).

This particular client has two sources of earned income – a directorship and a sole trade – and he tells me that he is likely to use the bikes for both businesses as well as occasionally for social (i.e. non-business) purposes.

I have no problem attributing particular journeys to respective business or non-business use.

However what is the correct income/corporation tax treatment for the annual subscription? Do the same principles apply for VAT?

I would be very grateful for Taxation readers’ analyses of the position here.

Query 17 716 – Easy Rider

Reply from Gardener

The bike is...