Having announced last week that double-cab Pick-ups will be treated as cars for taxation purposes, HMRC has now done a U-turn.
That means that if your business decides to lease a Ford Ranger – the UK’s best-selling pick-up – for your use, you’d pay a flat rate of BIK which, for a 40% taxpayer, is around £142 per month, a big saving on the 37% bracket most pick-ups would fit in if they were classified as car when it would cost a 40% taxpayer £685 per month on a £60k Ford Ranger.
So in an effort to find yet another way to tax motorists, HMRC announced last week that from 1 July all double-cab pickups bought or leased would be classified as cars, probably seeing the end of the healthy sales pick-ups have enjoyed.
But now – and nothing to do with it being an election year, of course – HMRC has back-tracked on the plan and decided it’s not going to happen and double-cab pick-ups will continue to be classified as commercial vehicles for taxation.
A statement from HMRC said:
The government has listened carefully to views from farmers and the motoring industry on the potential impacts of the change in tax-treatment. The government has acknowledged the guidance update could have an impact on businesses and individuals in a way that is not consistent with the government’s wider aims to support businesses, including vital motoring and farming industries.
HMRC have today announced that its existing guidance will be withdrawn, meaning that DCPUs will continue to be treated as goods vehicles rather than cars, and businesses and individuals can continue to benefit from its historic tax treatment.
Shame they didn’t put their thinking hat on before announcing the changes.
Grenze2000 says
Ridiculous decision, they should be taxed as cars, no exceptions, like they are in much of mainland Europe. Clearly done at the behest of some wealthy tax dodging scrounging farmers bank rolling the Tory party. Most double cabs are better appointed than many passenger cars and if you can afford to run one as a work vehicle, you can afford to pay the tax on it. Not sure how we’ve ended up with a situation where the poorest in society are expected to subsidise the wealthy. Shameful.