Many thanks. I had originally assumed that the car would need to be bought in my wife’s name, but judging by the questions in the guidance this didn’t seem to be a given, hence my question. I wonder if they would accept eligibility if the car was registered in my wife’s name but purchased with my money?
This poses another question, although I think I know the answer. We have intentionally kept all my savings in my sole name, which has paid off as my wife has just had a financial assessment for care costs for the first time, and they only take into account savings in her sole name, or jointly (which we don’t have), so all my savings weren’t taken into consideration. If we bought an expensive car in her name, that’s a major asset, but the assessment only takes into account income (her private pension plus some of the daily living component of PIP – she doesn’t have a state pension yet) and savings & investments. There were no questions on possessions or cars, and because I would have paid for the car out of my money (not hers) it couldn’t count as a ‘deprivation of assets’ (where people buy something expensive, or give money away, in order to reduce their savings to meet the care costs threshold).
Rather than spend hours on hold to HMRC, I might go to the dealership and speak to someone who deals with these exemptions, as the onus is on the dealership to administer it so they’d have to know what is allowed and what isn’t, as they have to exempt the purchase from VAT (you don’t pay it and claim it back).
Great news if the optional extras are also VAT exempted (which begs the question why we pay the full cost of options on VAT exempt Motability cars 🤔) and it was news to me (until I read the guidance) that servicing and maintenance costs as also VAT exempt (I’d only use the supplying main dealer for this).
I think it’s still going to work out at much more than I’d be happy to pay, but I would kick myself if I didn’t research this option thoroughly before discounting it, rather than finding out all about it afterwards!