Employer's FAQ's
What if it’s a one off purchase?
No problem! - Take the following steps:
- Employee comes to shop and chooses bike & equipment
- Invoice is made up payable to Your Company
- Employee pays deposit
- Bike is held until payment comes from Your Company. Deposit is refunded to employee.
(If employee pays full deposit they may take the bike away and full deposit will be refunded when payment arrives from company). - Note for payments made by cheque allow 7 working days for it to clear
What if an employee wishes to buy a bike in another store?
We recommend Cycle SuperStore as the no 1 alternative for your employees but not the only one. You should have at least 2 options available for your employees.
Why should you use Cycle SuperStore Bike2Work solution?
- Time Saved - The administration of each claim by an employee can take as little as 5 minutes to process
- Discounts - Companies that are part of our corporate discount scheme or Bike2Work solution are entitled to discount on all purchases made in the CycleSuperStore.
- Payment- For approved companies we offer the facility to make one payment per month
Why should Employers get involved?
- Save on PRSI
- Create a healthy workforce.
- Help your staff get to work more reliably.
- No problems with car parking space for your employees.
- Support a greener environment, contribute to lowering carbon emissions.
How does it work?
The scheme allows the employer to provide employees to purchase bicycle and/or cycle safety equipment without the employee being liable for benefit-in-kind taxation. Employers pay for the goods initialy and the employee pays back through a salary sacrifice arrangement through the employee’s payroll (in a similar manner to the existing Travel Pass Scheme). Under such an arrangement, the employer provides the bicycle and/or safety equipment to the employee who agrees to sacrifice part of his or her salary every pay period (weekly/fortnightly/monthly as the case may be). The full cost must be recovered within a maximum period of twelve months and the salary sacrifice will be reflected in the employee’s pay within that period.
- The employees will own bike and accessories
- Limit on the value of such purchases is €1,000 for each employee. Where the cost of purchase exceeds this amount employee pays the balance
- The exemption may only apply once in any five-year period in respect of any employee.
- There will be no limits as to where the bike should be purchased.
- If employee is on the top rate tax and full €1,000 is spent, a saving of €415.90 is made – and possibly more if the employee is still below the PRSI cut-off point.
- The employer will also benefit in that employer’s PRSI is not payable on the cost of the bicycle and/or safety equipment.
- Employers will not be permitted to purchase bikes for their employees where they do not believe that the employees in question will use them for cycling to and from work.
- Employers will not be able to reclaim the VAT paid on the bicycle and/or safety equipment.
- Participation in the scheme is voluntary for employers. However, when an employer agrees to participate, he or she must make the scheme generally available, on an equal basis, to all employees requesting it.
What equipment qualifies?
- Cycle helmets which conform to European standard EN 1078
- Bells and bulb horns
- Lights, including dynamo packs
- Mirrors and mudguards
- Cycle clips and dress guards
- Panniers, luggage carriers and straps to allow luggage to be safely carried
- Locks and chains to ensure cycle can be safely secured
- Pumps, puncture repair kits, cycle tool kits and tyre sealant to allow for minor repairs
- Reflective clothing along with white front reflectors and spoke reflectors
Are there any other Conditions?
- The employer must purchase the bicycles and/or safety equipment.
- The tax-exempt benefit-in-kind for the bicycle and safety equipment will only apply where the employee agrees to use the bicycle to cycle to and from work or between workplaces
- The tax-exempt benefit-in-kind will be limited to €1,000. Where the cost exceeds this amount, a BIK charge will apply to the balance
- Under any salary sacrifice arrangement, the cost of the bicycle and/or safety equipment must be paid within twelve months
- The tax-exempt benefit-in-kind may only be provided to an individual employee once in a five-year period
- Electric bikes are now eligible for the scheme
- Employees should note that if they avail of the scheme for even a small amount of expenditure relating to the provision of bicycles and/or safety equipment, they would not be able to avail of it again for five years
- It is not envisaged, at this stage, that there will be a notification process involved but the purchase of bicycles and associated safety equipment by employers for employees will be subject to the normal Revenue audit procedure with the normal obligations on employers to maintain records (e.g. invoices, salary sacrifice agreements between employer and employee, such agreements to include a statement from employees that the bicycle/bicycle safety equipment is for their own use and will be used for traveling to and from work)