Can a shared pool car avoid tax?
A pool car is tax-free only if it meets all five conditions, all year. See which ones yours meets, and what it costs if it doesn't.
Your answer
Answer the four questions to see whether it's a pool car.
About this calculator
For employers and directors with a car their staff share, who want to know whether it's really a tax-free pool car. It checks each of the five conditions in the law, says which ones fail and why, and, if it isn't a pool car, works out the company car tax and the business's National Insurance.
It's a rough view, not a ruling: HMRC judges how everyone used the car over the whole tax year. The cost puts the whole company car benefit on the person who drives it most. A car really shared between drivers at the same time can be split between them, so that's the most one person would pay.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
The law (section 167) makes a car a pool car for a tax year only if all five conditions hold: more than one employee actually uses it; it's available to them because of their jobs; no one employee ordinarily uses it to the exclusion of others; any personal use is merely incidental to work use; and it isn't normally kept overnight at or near anyone's home (parked at the business is fine).
Each answer meets a condition, puts it in doubt or fails it. One failure is enough to make it not a pool car. With no failures but a doubt, it's borderline. HMRC's own rule of thumb for overnight is that a car taken home on fewer than 6 nights in 10 isn't normally kept there.
If it isn't a pool car, the person who drives it most is taxed as if it were their company car: a share of the list price set by its CO2 (plus a fuel benefit if personal fuel is paid for), added to their pay. The business pays Class 1A National Insurance at 15% on that figure, and reports it on a P11D by 6 July.
Worked example
This isn't a pool car, so the main driver would pay about £1,800 a year in tax on it.
2026/27 tax year · only staff drive it · petrol · main driver's salary £40,000 · England · the main driver has it all year
| Two or more staff actually drive it | Met |
|---|---|
| It's available to staff because of their jobs (we assume so) | Met |
| One person drives it most of the time: it's ordinarily theirs, not the pool's | Fails |
| Personal use only in passing on work trips: HMRC accepts that as merely incidental | Met |
| Taken home on 6 nights in 10 or more: it's normally kept at someone's home | Fails |
| All 5 conditions must hold for the whole tax year | Not a pool car |
| If it isn't a pool car, it's a company car for the person who drives it most: | |
| List price, with options | £30,000 |
| Taxed share for a petrol car (120g/km) | 30% |
| Taxed as if it were pay | £9,000 |
| Tax you pay a year | £1,800 |
| Employer's National Insurance (Class 1A) at 15% of £9,000 | £1,350 |
Worked out using HMRC's published rates for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027), on a yearly basis.
Questions people ask
Can a pool car be taken home?
Now and then, yes: HMRC accepts taking it home the night before an early work trip. Taken home on most nights (6 in 10 or more, by HMRC's rule of thumb), it isn't a pool car.
What records should we keep?
A log for each trip (who drove it, when, where and why) and where it was kept each night. If HMRC asks, that's how you show it meets the conditions.
What if only one condition fails?
Then it isn't a pool car for that tax year. All five must hold, so the car is taxed as a company car for whoever had it available, and goes on a P11D.
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