Significant changes in benefit-in-kind tax charges for double-cab pick-ups planned from April 2025 will affect a wider range of vehicles than first thought.
Business Vans reported in November (story here) that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’s Budget Statement delivered on 30th October had included significant tax rises including a major change in the Benefit-in-Kind (BIK) status of double-cab pickups.
Now HMRC has clarified the ruling on such vehicles, revealing that such vehicles as King Cabs with rear-hinged half doors will also fall within the new regime.
Under the changes announced in October from April 2025 double-cab vehicles of one tonne or more will be treated as company cars, which will mean much higher BIK for their drivers and lower capital allowances for the businesses using them. However grandfather rights will apply to existing users until the 2029-30 tax year at the latest.
Under the new regime a typical user of a Ford Ranger, for example, could pay three and a half times more in BIK than they do currently, while a business formerly able to reclaim 100% of the price of the vehicle will now be limited to just 18%.
The original guidance stated that such vehicles should have four doors capable of being opened independently, but the latter point is missing from the latest HMRC update, issued on 20th February.
This update states that relevant vehicles normally have a front passenger cab that contains a second row of seats and is capable of seating about four passengers, plus the driver, four doors, whether the rear doors are hinged at the front or the rear and an uncovered pickup area behind the passenger cab.
The subtle change brings into the tax regime several extended and king-cab vehicles, with half rear doors that can only be opened with the front ones already open – some fleets had been considering buying such vehicles to replace double cabs to avoid the changes.
HMRC has applied the ruling because in its view double cab pick-ups and similar vehicles are equally suitable to be used as passenger cars as they are commercial vehicles.
Most major pick-up vehicles are available in extended for king cab format, including the Nissan Navara, Toyota Hill
