So that’s where all the police sirens went!
Civilian staff are given 999 cars... to escape tax
POLICE forces are giving emergency response cars to senior civilian staff which allows them to avoid paying tax, it has emerged.
Directors of finance, human resources and IT departments have been issued with vehicles with blue lights and sirens as company cars.
Each could avoid paying more than £2,000 a year in ‘taxable benefits’ because HM Revenue and Customs does not impose tax bills on emergency vehicles.
The forces who handed out the cars said none had been used in an emergency and the drivers were not qualified to use them to respond to 999 calls.
The revelation comes two days after the Mail told how some police officers are catching buses to investigate crimes because of a shortage of cars. Staff at one station in England complain there are only two vehicles shared among dozens of detectives.
It was also revealed this week that neighbourhood police teams in the West Midlands are having to stick to speed limits when attending emergencies as their Vauxhall Corsas don’t have sirens.
Figures obtained by the BBC show that seven forces in England have given emergency cars to nine senior civilian staff. The forces are Devon and Cornwall, Merseyside, Humberside, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Avon and Somerset, and Greater Manchester Police.
West Mercia and Warwickshire Police said they used to jointly pay for a car for a ‘director of enabling services’, but no longer do.
The forces said the vehicles were part of their wider fleet and denied they were provided to civilian staff for tax reasons. Ministers are preparing to draw up plans for further budget cuts of up to 40 per cent in forces across the country.
Despite this, many officers feel that ‘a culture of entitlement’ exists at senior levels within forces, according to a report from the College of Policing earlier this year.
It found staff at chief officer rank were being provided with executive cars fitted with emergency equipment such as blue lights and sirens. They were not trained or authorised to use the vehicle and were ‘ apparently motivated by the advantageous tax treatment available for emergency vehicles’.
Laura Hutchinson, of tax specialists Forbes Dawson, said any potential tax saving would depend on the vehicle’s cost and CO2 emissions.
A driver of a £30,000 BMW 5 Series saloon paying tax at 40 per cent would save £2,200. ‘It is clear that the vehicle does not have to be a marked car, which may make this an attractive route to providing taxfree benefits where the rules were not intended to apply,’ she said.