Vehicle Tracking and Benefit in Kind Taxation
Companies seeking to review their proceedures in managing employees with company vehicles should look no further than Romex World's PDA Vehicle Tracking Software. As a new tax year starts- the second year with under the benefit in kind rules changes, it is estimated that over 70% of companies still could not prove that their vehicles have not been used for private mileage.
Romex say that their software enables the automatic generation of business and private mileage configered by the customer. Jason Laight, Romex Sales Director, commented that this report alone solves much of the complexity as a company seeks to provide evidence to the Inland Revenue.
Historically van drivers have been treated as receiving a benefit-in-kind of £500 to cover this personal use. For a basic rate taxpayer this was a tax cost of only £110. For 2007/08 the taxable benefit increased by 700% to £3,500 ? a tax cost of £770 at a basic rate of 22%.
"The danger for Employers is that they also face increased costs as they have to pay 12.8% Class 1A National Insurance on all benefits provided to employees. To reduce costs, employers therefore need to review their company van policies and, if not already done, issue clear guidelines and restrictions on how and when those vehicles are to be used. The Revenue has already stated that it is upto the company to provide proof"
"Our automatic milage recording is yet another example of how our software adds progressive layers of value to an organisation" Continued Laight.
The Romex product suite has turned the vehicle tracking market on its head by turning any GPS enabled smartphone, Blackberry or PDA into a tracking device- removing much of the complexity and cost of vehicle tracking- providing SME's with access to the tracking benefits traditionally available to large corporate fleets.
Features include pinpoint location mapping, speed monitoring (by road), arrival and departure from customer sites and the identification of resources closest to customer locations. This is the first of a number of mobile worker solutions being launched by Romex in 2009 to support different vertical sectors.
Romex (Romex World Ltd) the Mobile Application Service Provider (MASP) launched the first off-the-shelf automated GPS tracking software for Small & Medium Businesses that detects when the user is in a moving vehicle or not.
The software enables efficient management of a mobile workforce doubling as a lone worker protection solution. Downloadable to GPS enabled Smartphones with Blackberry or Windows Mobile, there is no additional in vehicle hardware required. The modular architecture of the software enables businesses to converge their technology and utilise their existing assets thus giving natural cost reduction.
Romex software is made up of two parts - MyFix, loaded into the mobile team's Smartphones and using the latest GPS technology with Google Maps, and TeamFix a true web-enabled interface that feeds the required information direct to the relevant operative. A 14 day try-before-you-buy trial is available on registration at www.romexworld.com.