There are two scenarios where Benefit in Kind (BIK), may not be triggered for employees when using company cars.

Car Pools

If your employee uses a company car in a car-pool, they do not have to pay PAYE, PRSI and USC on this benefit.

A car-pool exists where:

• A car is available and used by more than one employee.
• The car must not be regularly used by one employee who prevents others from using it.
• Private use of the car by the employee is minimal.
• The car is not regularly kept overnight at or near the employee’s home.

Electric Vehicles

Certain BIK exemptions and discounts are available where the car made available to your employee is an electric car. Electric cars are cars that get their motive power from electricity only. Hybrid cars do not qualify as electric cars.

The treatment applies to both new and used cars. You may choose to make an electric car available to your employee for private use between now and 31 December 2021.

Where this occurs, no charge to BIK arises in respect of any use by your employee where either of the following apply:

• The Open Market Value of the car is €50,000 or less, or
• You first made this car available to your employee between 10 October 2017 and 9 October 2018.

Where neither of the above apply, only a partial exemption is available. This is granted by reducing the OMV by €50,000 when calculating the cash equivalent for the car.