As you can now rent cars by the hour, should this be, like other car-related green schemes, tax deductible?

It may not be something that would trouble James Bond, I would imagine he’d get a lovely lady to do his. But for the rest of us, Taxes are always going to happen, why can’t we get a break on green issues?

The phenomenon of the hire car facility run by companies such as Streetcar/Zipcar is a rapidly expanding industry. This concept originated in America, but is now becoming a strong presence in dense, UK urban areas such as London.

The schemes enables drivers to not even own a car and be able to ring up the hire car company of their choice to book a car, usually with as little as half a day’s notice.

They are then given the location of the nearest car to their house. There are not any depots as such for the cars you are hiring, but instead there are key parking spots chosen from around the city in areas where, notably, public transport is at its thinnest. This enables you to not have to travel miles out of your way if you just need the car for a twenty-minute shopping trip. Upon picking the car up, a brief check is performed to make note of any damage that might have been done during the previous user’s trip, and you are free to drive on your way.

The car is left conveniently in a car park for you

There is usually some kind of fuel card or ID card wherein the company covers the cost of petrol and you, instead, are charged what is considered by most people to be a very reasonable rate, recently upped to a still impressively low £4.55 (approximate average rate) for an hour’s driving. What’s more is that hiring a car in this way means that you, personally, do not pay for the congestion charges in London.

Surely then it could be argued that such a service should be tax deductible. After all, the logic follows that if you are taking the time to hire a car for your journey, it’s not something you could have easily used public transport for and nor is it something other than a necessary expense. For example, you’re not going to hire a car, walk the distance to pick it up and then go to your local shop five minutes down the road for a loaf of bread.

You can hire a car to pick up or get rid of all your rubbish

Further arguments for a tax deduction occur when considering the types of cars the hire car companies are offering. They include Fiat Puntos, Minis, and Volvo S40s to name but a few. All of these cars would be considered to be Green or environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient cars. It follows that, by the companies providing greener cars for people to drive, these drivers are creating less emissions per mile for their necessary journeys than casual users of privately owned cars which may range from juggernaut sized four-by-fours to gas guzzling Porsches.

Minis are just one of the cars you could rent

In fact, the way the system is operated also allows for more responsible drivers to be driving on our roads. This can be derived from the fact that, upon hiring a car, you are first asked to make sure that there is no damage on the vehicle, and that when you leave the vehicle in its parking space for the next driver, that there is no damage having been caused to the vehicle during your time of driving it.

Subsequently, if you, the driver, or any other driver before or after you, causes damage to the car and makes it unsafe for any reason, it will be caught during the checking process after you have finished your journey or, even, by the next driver after you. For example, if you notice that the car appears to be burning some oil during your journey, you are obligated, as per your contract with the hire company, to notify the necessary people with whom you deal with it so they can check it over.

It is down to the driver to inform the company of problems with the car

This means companies that are providing these hire car services are encouraging more conscientious driving with better attention to car safety and for car efficiency, meaning that the time you spend in your hired car is both one of the least damaging to the environment and potentially one of the safest ways of driving if the stringent checks that these companies claim to make are true.

To even be allowed to use the facility of a hire car company like those in question, a person must pass a DVLA check to ensure they have a valid (and, for some companies, clean) driving licence. This further adds to the idea that there will be only safe and responsible car users on the road in such hire cars, something that, surely, should have some kind of incentive behind it.

Furthermore, it would be an easy thing to make your hire car use a deductible business expense that is both easily verifiable and in compliance with tax deduction laws.

It’s a green scheme, why not make it tax deductible?

During the booking process, which can be done either over the phone or, as with ‘Simplecar’ online, the simple question of “What is the function of your journey going to be?” could be used to garner information as to whether it is to be a business or personal related journey. Further more, it would allow you to precisely state what part of your journey was for business, if, for instance, you are also picking up your children on the way home and then to set off afterward for yet another work related affair.

The company could easily log your mileage for you, and allow you to create a recognisable and detailed account of your expenses in terms of business use, therein providing you documentation for your journeys for when it comes time to submit your taxes.

In short, if the government wishes to create a greener approach to the way we drive, allowing such schemes as those put forward by Streetcar and Zipcar to be tax deductible is an absolute must, when it encourages more responsible drivers using more eco-friendly cars. Not only would it be easily viable, but it would be an excellent thing to pair with car sharing initiatives and bio-fuel introduction, all of which have already been ear marked for tax deductible rewards.

What do you think? is the right way to go forward on the great green/car debate? Or is there another way?