Data // Salary sacrifice

Polestar 4 salary sacrifice

What a Polestar 4 costs you on salary sacrifice in tax, by income tax band and year, from its list price and HMRC's rates. Free to use.

Updated 23 October 2026 · reviewed monthly

Polestar 4 · benefit-in-kind tax a month · 2026/27
£73
£36
At 20%
£73
At 40%
£82
At 45%
Benefit-in-kind tax a month for a higher-rate taxpayer on a Polestar 4 SUV Rear motor, P11D value £54,685, at 4% in 2026/27.

A Polestar 4 SUV Rear motor on salary sacrifice costs a basic-rate taxpayer £36 a month in benefit-in-kind tax in 2026/27, a higher-rate taxpayer £73 and an additional-rate taxpayer £82, on a P11D value of £54,685. Each £100 of salary sacrificed costs 72, 58 or 53 pounds of take-home pay respectively (THRIVE, from HMRC rates and Polestar UK configurator, 23 Oct 2026).

Salary sacrifice

Polestar 4: benefit-in-kind tax a month, 2026/27 to 2029/30

Tax yearBiK rateAt 20%At 40%At 45%Employer NI a year
2026/274%£36£73£82£328
2027/285%£46£91£103£410
2028/297%£64£128£144£574
2029/309%£82£164£185£738

P11D value £54,685: SUV Rear motor, £54,750 list price on the road, less the £55 first registration fee and £10 VED it includes; before the time-limited £4,000 offer, from the Polestar UK configurator, 23 Oct 2026. A higher-specified version costs more in tax in proportion to its price. Rates for each year are HMRC's published appropriate percentages; income tax rates are held at today's.

Real cost to you, per month£362.91against £500.00 paying the same rental from taxed income: you save £137.09 a month, 27%
Take-home pay falls by£290.00
Tax and NI you stop paying£210.00
Benefit-in-kind tax you start paying£72.91
Net monthly cost£362.91

What the quote does not show you

Benefit-in-kind on an electric car rises every April, so the figure a scheme quotes is the cheapest month of the contract. Over a three-year term this one starts at £362.91 and ends at £417.60, averaging £387.22 a month.

Tax yearBiK rateCost a month
2026/274%£362.91
2027/285%£381.14
2028/297%£417.60
Whole term (36 months)average£387.22 (£13,940 in total)

And the fuel you stop buying

HMRC values petrol in a 1401cc to 2000cc car at 17p a mile and home-charged electricity at 7p. At 10,000 miles a year that is £83.33 a month you stop spending, which is the part that decides whether the arrangement is worth it.

Net cost, term average, after fuel£303.88£387.22 average monthly cost less £83.33 of fuel you no longer buy. Both figures are HMRC's, not a scheme's.

Illustrative, not advice, and not a quote. Uses 2026/27 rates: 40% income tax, 2% employee National Insurance and 4% benefit-in-kind on an electric car. England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scottish income tax bands differ. It assumes the sacrifice does not take you below the National Minimum Wage or into a different band, and ignores any employer administration charge.

What this means for fleets

Salary sacrifice takes the rental out of your gross pay, so you pay no income tax or employee National Insurance on it. Every £100 of gross pay you give up costs you 72 pounds of take-home pay as a basic-rate taxpayer, 58 pounds at the higher rate and 53 pounds at the additional rate. Then the Polestar 4 is a taxable benefit: the monthly figures above are that tax.

Against a car allowance. A cash allowance is taxed as pay, so £100 of allowance is worth the same 72, 58 or 53 pounds after tax. Taking the car on salary sacrifice instead swaps that allowance for the car, with no tax on the rental but the benefit-in-kind charge on top.

Against a personal lease or PCP. Those are paid from take-home pay, so £100 a month costs £100. On salary sacrifice the same £100 gross rental costs 72 to 53 pounds, plus the benefit-in-kind tax above, before you compare the two quotes. THRIVE does not hold PCP or scheme prices from a primary source, so put your own quotes in the calculator.

From April 2028 electric cars also pay Electric Vehicle Excise Duty by the mile; that is a running cost on top of the tax here, not part of it. The full company car tax table is on the company car tax page, and every car we cover is on the salary sacrifice calculator.

Our news report on this car: Polestar 4 on salary sacrifice: 4% BiK, from £56,750, up to 385 miles.

Methodology

Benefit-in-kind = P11D value × the appropriate percentage for a zero-emission car in that tax year; the monthly tax is that benefit × the income tax rate ÷ 12. Employer Class 1A National Insurance is the benefit × 15%. Take-home cost per £100 sacrificed = £100 less the marginal income tax and employee National Insurance saved.

Rates from GOV.UK income tax rates, National Insurance rates and HMRC's appropriate percentages, read live from the rates API. England, Wales and Northern Ireland bands; Scottish income tax differs. This is arithmetic on published rates and a published price, not advice or a quote.

Figures checked against GOV.UK on 28 August 2026.

API

Free JSON API - no key, open CORS, cache-friendly:

curl https://www.thrivefleet.co.uk/api/v1/rates
{ "rates": [ { "key": "income_tax_higher_pct", "value": 40, … } ] }

Free to use. Please credit THRIVE and link to the page a figure came from: a request, never a condition of use. See the data terms and the API guide.

Questions

How much is a Polestar 4 on salary sacrifice?

The rental is set by your employer's scheme provider. What THRIVE can work out is the tax: £36 a month benefit-in-kind at the basic rate, £73 at the higher rate and £82 at the additional rate in 2026/27, and each £100 of gross rental costs you 72, 58 or 53 pounds of take-home pay.

What is the BiK on a Polestar 4?

4% of its P11D value in 2026/27, rising to 9% in 2029/30. On the SUV Rear motor at £54,685 that is a taxable benefit of £2,187 a year now.

Is salary sacrifice cheaper than PCP for a Polestar 4?

Compare the two quotes after tax. A PCP or personal lease is paid from take-home pay; a salary sacrifice rental comes out of gross pay, so £100 of it costs 72 to 53 pounds, plus the benefit-in-kind tax. The calculator above does the sum with your own figures.

Latest stories

Company car tax and salary sacrifice: the guide

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