Changes to Treatment of Double Cab Pickups after 6th April 2025

Background

Until the budget in 2024, a majority of double cab pickup trucks were categorised at 'van', allowing the employees to take advantage of the the lower tax applicable to those vehicles. As you may be aware, that is changing...

From 5th April 2025

From 6 April 2025, HMRC has changed its interpretation of the terms “car” and “van” for tax purposes. 

In future, the classification of a double cab pickup will need to be determined by assessing the vehicle at the point that it is made available – this is to determine whether the vehicle construction has a primary suitability (as per the two-part test outlined at EIM23115). This means that from 6 April 2025, most double cab pickups are expected to be classified as cars when calculating the benefit charge. This is because “typically these vehicles are equally suited to convey passengers and goods and have no predominant suitability”.   

However, as many employees already have double cab pickups treated under the old arrangements, HMRC have outlined some ‘transitional arrangements’. These will apply for employers that have purchased, leased, or ordered a double cab pickup before 6 April 2025, and mean that they will be able to rely upon the previous treatment until the earlier of:

• Disposal
• Lease expiry
• 5 April 2029 

HMRC have published an article on the on GOV.UK entitled “EIM23151 - Car benefit: double cab pickups 6 April 2025 onwards” (link here). We suggest that our customers review this article to ensure that they are reporting these vehicles correctly as from 6th April 2025.