HMRC announce U-Turn on Double Cab Pickups

In a remarkable U-turn HMRC has announced that its decision to treat all double cab pickups as cars rather than vans from 1 July 2024 has now been withdrawn, meaning the benefit in kind position will remain as the significantly more favourable van basis where the payload is 1 tonne or more.

The rapid change of heart by HMRC seems to have been as a result of representations from the farming and motoring industry on the potential impacts of the change in tax treatment. In addition, Government indicated that the impact of the proposed changes would have adversely affected its wider aims of supporting businesses, particularly those in farming and motoring.

Whilst the construction section was not mentioned specifically in the statement, it is fair to say that the sector would be a significant user of double cab pickups, so the U-turn will undoubtedly bring a collective sigh of relief.

Moving forward it will be very interesting to see how HMRC use the Coca Cola case when considering the tax position of panel vans like the Transit.