Fleet managers need to be aware that reallocating a pick-up truck to a different employee after April 6 will alter the vehicle’s tax treatment, regardless of when it was originally ordered.
This warning comes as double cab pick-up trucks face being treated as company cars, a change announced in the Autumn Budget. This shift will result in a significant increase in the benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax paid by drivers, potentially amounting to thousands of pounds.
Transitional BIK arrangements are available for employers who purchased, leased, or ordered a double cab pick-up before April 6, irrespective of the delivery date. The Treasury has stated these employers can continue using the previous tax treatment until the earliest of these dates: disposal of the vehicle, lease expiry, or April 5, 2029.
Pick-up trucks ordered after April 6, 2025, will automatically be classified as company cars for BIK and capital allowances purposes. However, a critical point is that even if a vehicle was ordered before the tax change took effect, reallocating it to a new employee after April 6 will trigger its classification as a company car.
Tax specialist Harvey Perkins, co-founder of HRUX, explained the core rule: “If you order the vehicle on or after April 6, it’s a car. If you order it before April 6, it’s a van. There’s no deadline for delivery of the vehicle. But,” he cautioned, “If you change the user of that double cab pick-up, it immediately becomes a car.” Perkins made these comments during a tax webinar organized by the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP).
Perkins further clarified the impact of reallocating pick-up trucks on their tax treatment with a specific example. “If you order a double cab pickup before April 6 and put Fred in it, and then in a year’s time Fred leaves, and then you put Susan in it, for Susan, it’s a car immediately.”
HMRC recently updated its guidance on the taxation of double cab pick-up trucks after initial confusion among fleet operators regarding which vehicles would be affected by company car tax.
