If your company runs a double cab pickup, or a fleet of them, and you bought it new from 6 April 2025, the tax treatment changed underneath you. HMRC now treats double cab pickups with a payload of one tonne or more as cars rather than vans for benefit-in-kind and capital allowances purposes. For a trade that has relied on the flat-rate van benefit and full capital allowances for years, that's not a small adjustment. It changes the maths on whether the truck should go through the company at all.
What actually changed, and when
HMRC's long-standing position, built on VAT case law about a vehicle's "primary suitability", treated most double cab pickups with a one-tonne-plus payload as goods vehicles rather than cars. In February 2024, HMRC briefly announced it would move to a car-by-car assessment based on a 2020 Court of Appeal decision, only to withdraw that guidance within days after backlash from the farming and construction industries. The change came back at the Autumn Budget in October 2024, this time properly legislated: from 6 April 2025, double cab pickups with a payload of one tonne or more are treated as cars for both benefit-in-kind and capital allowances purposes, full stop.
The one-tonne payload test itself hasn't changed — it's still the line HMRC uses to distinguish a genuine load-carrying vehicle from something dressed up as one. What's changed is what happens once a double cab pickup passes that test: it used to buy you van treatment, and now it buys you car treatment instead.
Transitional relief if you bought before the change
If you purchased, leased, or placed a firm order for a double cab pickup before 6 April 2025, you're not caught immediately. The previous van-based treatment continues to apply until the earliest of the vehicle's disposal, the lease coming to an end, or 5 April 2029. That's a genuine multi-year window, and it means fleets bought just ahead of the change keep the old, cheaper tax treatment for some time yet — but it's worth checking your own paperwork rather than assuming. The protection turns on the date of purchase, lease or order, not the date the vehicle was registered or delivered.
Why the benefit-in-kind hit is the part that stings
Van benefit is a flat annual charge, the same figure whatever the van cost and whatever it emits, and it's modest next to what a well-specified double cab pickup actually costs. Car benefit works completely differently: it's the vehicle's list price multiplied by a percentage set by CO2 emissions, and a large diesel pickup sits at or near the top of the emissions bands. Put those two things together and the benefit-in-kind charge on a director or employee using a double cab pickup privately, even just commuting in it, can run into several times what the van charge would have been on the same vehicle.
The only way to avoid the charge entirely, under either set of rules, is to genuinely restrict the vehicle to business use with no significant private use — not a nominal restriction on paper, but a real one HMRC could stand behind if it asked.
Capital allowances: less dramatic, but not nothing
The capital allowances side of this change matters less in practice for most property and construction businesses, because a company pickup used purely on site, with no private use, can still qualify for the Annual Investment Allowance regardless of whether it's now classed as a car. The 100% first-year relief survives for that scenario. Where it bites is a sole trader or partner buying a pickup with some private use built in: cars with private use don't get the Annual Investment Allowance at all, and instead attract writing-down allowances at a rate set by CO2 emissions, which is a much slower trickle of relief than the immediate deduction a van would have given.
What this means for a property or construction business
If your fleet is genuinely restricted to work use, tools, materials, site visits, with private use locked down and documented, the change costs you little beyond the capital allowances timing difference on new purchases. If directors or site managers are taking pickups home and using them at weekends, the calculation has moved firmly against continuing to do that through the company on a post-April-2025 vehicle. Run the numbers on the specific vehicle and the specific driver's tax position before you place the next fleet order — and if you're inside the transitional window on existing vehicles, know the date your protection runs out so it doesn't catch you by surprise in 2029.
Common questions
Are double cab pickups still classed as vans for tax purposes?
No, not for anything bought, leased or ordered from 6 April 2025 onwards. HMRC now treats double cab pickups with a payload of one tonne or more as cars rather than goods vehicles for both benefit-in-kind and capital allowances purposes, following the Autumn Budget 2024 announcement.
Is there any transitional protection for pickups bought before April 2025?
Yes. If you purchased, leased or ordered a double cab pickup before 6 April 2025, you can carry on using the previous van-based tax treatment until the earliest of the vehicle's disposal, the lease expiring, or 5 April 2029, whichever comes first.
Why does this matter so much for benefit-in-kind purposes?
Van benefit is a fixed flat-rate charge regardless of the vehicle's value or emissions, and is low relative to typical pickup list prices. Car benefit is based on the vehicle's list price multiplied by a CO2-based percentage, and a large diesel double cab pickup sits in one of the highest emissions bands, so the taxable benefit for a director or employee with private use can run several times higher under car rules than under van rules.
Does this affect capital allowances too, not just benefit-in-kind?
It can, though the practical impact is often smaller. Vans typically qualified for 100% first-year relief through the Annual Investment Allowance, and cars used for business can also qualify for the Annual Investment Allowance where they have no private use, so a company pickup used solely on site may still get full relief. Where there is any private use by a sole trader or partner, cars are restricted to writing-down allowances at a rate set by CO2 emissions, which is far slower than the immediate deduction vans attract.
Kieran Holsgrove is a Director and Co-Founder of Grafene Accounting, the property tax specialist firm based in Liverpool. He advises property developers, investors and landlords across Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire on tax structuring, developer VAT, SDLT and the long-view decisions that compound over the life of a portfolio.
This article is general information, not personal tax advice, and tax rules change. Your own position depends on facts we cannot see from here — please take advice before acting on anything above.