{"id":30557,"date":"2022-10-10T01:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/?p=30557"},"modified":"2023-07-03T08:51:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T19:51:22","slug":"can-you-use-your-private-car-ute-or-van-for-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/can-you-use-your-private-car-ute-or-van-for-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you use your private car, ute or van for work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A vehicle that you use for business purposes doesn&#8217;t have to be owned by the business. It doesn&#8217;t even have to be owned by you (although, that would mean that you can&#8217;t personally claim any expenses on that vehicle that are work-related). These vehicles belong to the &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/grey-fleet\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5073\">grey fleet<\/a>&#8216;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s possible to use your private vehicle for work, but there are some taxation and insurance obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Insurance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your private motor vehicle insurance will not cover all work-related travel; if it covers any at all, it will be to and from your office and for travel to and from meetings where you are not carrying goods or making sales (i.e. it&#8217;s you and the car heading to a meeting). There may also be limits on how much this can be used. Make your insurance company aware and ask them to write it into your policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most insurance companies separate business cover from personal cover and there will be a different policy which addresses the risks of business travel. The types of driving that insurance companies usually expressly forbid on a private insurance policy are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Driving for hire or reward (e.g. taxi, Uber, courier)<\/li><li>Driving instructor<\/li><li>Real estate agent<\/li><li>Mobile mechanic<\/li><li>Sales<\/li><li>Carrying or towing goods in relation to a trade or business.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/uber-driver-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/uber-driver-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/uber-driver-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/uber-driver-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/uber-driver-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/uber-driver.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption>Rideshare and taxi services are not permitted with a private insurance policy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s best to talk to your insurance company to determine what you can get away with. For example, a property investor who visits their property once every three months to do an inspection will almost certainly be covered as the risk and usage is so low, but a person using their car to tow a trailer and carry gardening waste from a landscaping business almost certainly won&#8217;t be covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reason why private insurance doesn&#8217;t cover you is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You are likely to be carrying goods which are attractive to thieves<\/li><li>You are spending more time on the road, which increases the general risk<\/li><li>You are driving during work time where traffic is likely to be heavier and you are likely to be distracted<\/li><li>You are likely to visit a larger number of sites that are unfamiliar to you, increasing the risk of damaged.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a sign-written vehicle and you are in a crash, but you only have private insurance, this could create a problem for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tax obligations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you use your personal vehicle, there are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ird.govt.nz\/vehicle-expenses\">three ways of dealing with it:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Claim actual costs &#8211; you&#8217;ll need to keep accurate records of private vs work-related expenses. <\/li><li>Keep a logbook for every journey and claim the government-approved cost per kilometre.<\/li><li>Use a flat rate for calculating usage &#8211; this is 25% at the time of writing.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s best to talk to your accountant about which one works best for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fringe benefits tax<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Fringe benefits tax applies in the opposite scenario: you are using a work vehicle supplied to you for personal reasons. In this case, you need to pay tax for the benefit you receive from the vehicle. It&#8217;s best to contact your accountant. If you have your own business, then you would make income tax and GST adjustments for using a private vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A vehicle that you use for business purposes doesn&#8217;t have to be owned by the business. It doesn&#8217;t even have to be owned by you (although, that would mean that you can&#8217;t personally claim any expenses on that vehicle that<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/can-you-use-your-private-car-ute-or-van-for-work\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32115,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30557\/revisions\/32115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drivingtests.co.nz\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}