flogmad

I've posted a couple of other questions this evening and here's another one. Thanks in advance for responses.

We're moving to Tampa next month. I'm setting up a new US company which will be wholly owned by my UK company. In the UK it used to make sense for the company to buy or lease a car and provide it to an employee to use. However, year on year tax hikes has meant that this perk is no longer of any value as the government taxes the benefit of the car as a perk received by the individual. Far fewer people now obtain cars via their companies.

Can anyone advise me whether it makes sense in the US for the company to buy or lease the car and provide it to the employee (i.e. me!) Does this make financial sense in the US?

Bob

Depends and the kind of use the car will be involved with and on the state.

You can claim mileage as an expense for taxes on your own motor if used for business travel, but it does need to meet requirements, it can't be the to/from work drive, it would have to be to a third party/site type of thing and you'd minus your regular home drive from that distance.

Anyway, it could be worth it to get a lease if you don't intend to be driving much, but on the other hand you could be hurting yourself in the long run.

The US is all about having US credit history and a good way of getting it is with a car loan, so if you get the car through the company, you won't be building up any personal history, this will reflect in crap rates on credit cards if you're able to get any, crap mortgage rates, problems with utilities getting hooked up, rubbish car/house insurance etc.