– Kombi Van With some more unusual ones: Can you help me identify the correct treatment for these type of vehicles?”
– Land Rover Defender
– Double Cab Pick up
– Crew Vans
– Converted minibus, into a campervan
The first thing to note is that when looking at the Tax treatment of vehicles, the Capital Allowances and Benefit in Kind guidance is the same. The legislation is found at s268A CAA 2001 (Capital Allowances) and s115 ITEPA 2003 (Benefit in Kind), which in summary state that all vehicles are treated as cars unless they fall into one of the following three categories:
1. Motorbike;
2. Vehicle of a construction primarily suited for the conveyance of goods or burden of any description, or
3. A vehicle of a type not commonly used as a private vehicle and unsuitable for such use.
The next thing to understand is when applying these above conditions, you are only considering the construction of the vehicle, not its use. Therefore, regardless of what the business uses the vehicle for, if its construction specification does not meet one of the above conditions, the vehicle will qualify as a car.
The above is as detailed as the legislation gets on this matter, so identifying specific cars is not something I can provide with a definitive yes or no answer, as these conditions are open to interpretation. I can however help you identify the important features of the vehicle to give you a strong argument for how it should be treated.
Kombi Van/Crew Vans
These are van type vehicles, but with a second row of seats. The condition you are looking at then is the second one, “Vehicle of a construction primarily suited for the conveyance of goods or burden of any description.” Multiple row of seats is the important factor with these type of vehicles, as it provides a larger passenger area and therefore an argument can be made that it is not primarily suited for the conveyance of goods but for people and goods equally.
It is important to note that more than one row of seats does not mean it will automatically fail this test, as discussed in the following HMRC manual EIM23120, which states:
“A vehicle will not automatically fail this test if it has two rows of seats. There are certain vehicles that have a large/high load area that significantly exceeds the passenger and multi-purpose areas, and are primarily suited for carrying goods or burden.
However if a vehicle has no predominant purpose, and is equally suited to carrying passengers and cargo, it will not satisfy this test.”
Therefore, unless the vehicle loadspace is significantly larger than the passenger area, there is a stronger argument that these type of vehicles are cars. This was further backed up by the Coca Cola case, where it was confirmed by the First-tier Tribunal that these were treated as cars.
Land Rover Defender
There are several different models of the Defender, however the most common that is raised is the commercial version. This model is designed with no rear seats (or the fixings for them), no rear passenger windows, and internally is more similar to a van.
It is the second condition that you are looking at for this type of vehicle, covering the same points as mentioned above. However, with this type of vehicle there is an argument the loadspace is more substantial than the passenger area, and it mirrors more similarly to a normal van. The larger loadspace, no rear passenger windows, provides a greater argument that the vehicle was constructed primarily for the conveyance of goods so the second condition may be satisfied. An argument can be made to treat these are commercial vehicles.
Double Cab Pick-up
From 6 April 2025, the double cab pick-up no longer has a specific exemption and therefore would fall under the same rules as the above mentioned Kombi vans, giving a stronger argument to treat them as cars.
Converted Minibus into a campervan
If you first consider the minibus, there are arguments that these can qualify as a commercial vehicle. This is considering the third condition: “A vehicle of a type not commonly used as a private vehicle and unsuitable for such use.”
It is reasonable to state that a minibus is not commonly used as a private vehicle, but the important part of this condition is that is unsuitable for such use. This means there has to be some form of restriction preventing this type of vehicle from being used as a private vehicle.
If a minibus has a certain number of seats, the driver is required to have a special licence in order to drive it. This would be deemed a restriction on the vehicle, and therefore providing your argument that the third condition is satisfied enabling you to treat it as a commercial vehicle.
Once the vehicle is converted though, you are removing this restriction and therefore removing your argument for the third condition to be satisfied. As it does not fall under any of the conditions, it would then be treated as a car.
