This week's opinion

I have never been much interested in cars – if anybody asks me what car I drive I say ‘a black one’. But many clients seem obsessed by cars particularly if they can get them tax-free. Hence the conversations when they try to convince you that ‘their’ car is a pool car even though it is kept at home (for ‘security reasons’) and that no other employee has ever driven it. Theoretically it is available to all employees but woe betide anyone who is brave enough to ask for the keys.

It is difficult to establish that a car meets all of the conditions to be a pool car. Difficult but not impossible as the recent case of Dugan (TC5354) shows.

HMRC argued that it was not enough to meet the statutory conditions. The tribunal said: ‘HMRC’s objections to pool car treatment were based entirely on the...