What is home reimbursement or return to home?
More and more fleet managers in the UK are transitioning their fleets to electric. The benefits are numerous: reduced operating costs, ESG compliance, and with great salary sacrifice schemes for employees (and not to mention a better driving experience) the switch has big upside for drivers too.
The most cost-effective and convenient way to charge a company vehicle is often a) at night when the driver is not working and electricity prices are lower and b) at the employee’s home on their private charger, if they have one. However, there is a challenge: if the employee just submitted their home electricity bill, how could an employer tell which consumption came from the vehicle, and which came from the rest of the house?
With “home reimbursement”, you can use software like Tap Electric to split a household electricity bill between company-sponsored EV charging, and everything else. This is done by integrating with the EV charger’s internal meter, identifying who is using the charger at a given time, and billing that usage directly to the employer so that they can reimburse their employee.
What are the benefits of home reimbursement?
There are many benefits to offering home reimbursement to employees:
- Employers receive a single, VAT-compliant invoice. This simplifies administration for all their employees’ charging. This can replace administratively intensive expense reports. This single invoice can also include employees’ public charging sessions, in case they need to charge while on the road.
- It’s often possible to reduce charging costs. This is because home electricity is often cheaper than public charging.
- Employees get the convenience of home charging. They can simply plug in when they get home every day.
- Simple reimbursement for employees. Employees no longer need to worry about expense reports, but instead are automatically reimbursed for their usage at home.
What are the challenges of home reimbursement?
There are several important considerations when setting up your home reimbursement:
- The employee’s spouse also has an EV. How can you differentiate between the employee’s car and the second vehicle?
- The employee uses the car for personal use, on top of their company miles. How can you make sure you only reimburse them for their work usage?
- Tax compliance. There are different tax treatments on the different types of transactions. Reimbursing home electricity has no VAT, because this is treated as an expense payment which the employee has already paid tax on towards their energy retailer. The subscription fee for the home reimbursement service is taxed normally. Finally, any public charging costs are taxed at the full rate.
How home reimbursement works on Tap
Tap Electric provides a complete solution for employers and drivers that covers charging in public, at work, and of course home reimbursement. In some cases, the employer and driver are the same person, in the case of an entrepreneur or sole proprietor.
There are several important considerations when setting up your home reimbursement:
- Create your account at web.tapelectric.app if you’re new to Tap.
- Onboard your employee’s home location to your account. Here you can set the access options and add their spouse in case they have an EV.
- Create a fleet. Even if it’s just you and your company car, you’ll need to set up a fleet
- Add a new driver to your fleet. Link a Tap charge card to this employee. If you need charge cards, , reach out to [email protected].
- Turn on the switch for “home reimbursement” for the driver. Then add their bank account details, and the tariff you have agreed to reimburse them.
That’s it! Home reimbursement is now setup for that employee. This setup solves several problems:
1
Trackable charge sessions:
Every charge session is started using a unique charge chard or app account, so we know when your employee is charging vs when it is someone else, like their spouse.
2
Separates personal and work charging:
When the employee is driving personal miles, they can easily switch to their personal Tap account to start and pay for sessions at home (and on the road).
3
Clear, compliant invoices:
Tap sends the employer a tax-compliant invoice each month with the bill for all employee transactions. This is paired with a detailed, downloadable report on consumption, including employee and location names.
Why use Tap for your fleet management services?
- 24/7 support for you and your fleet drivers
- Receive a single VAT invoice for all monthly charging activities by your employees
- Get detailed reports on who is charging where and when
- Automated monthly payouts for you and your employees
- Your employees get access to the Tap Electric app and companion Tapkey charge card, the only charge card on the market with two-factor-authentication (2FA) capability for enhanced security
- Manage your own chargers for free with our charger management platform
Manage your fleet with a single low-cost subscription fee
Unlimited chargers, unlimited sessions, one low cost.
