P11D’s

Discountqueens

My husband has received a new tax code that shows van benefit however as far as we’re concerned the truck isn’t used for personal use.

My husband travels all over visiting building sites & attending meetings visiting at least 5 different sites per day. He travels home from site & the truck is parked up unless he goes to work. He can get a call on weekend or bank holiday & need to travel to site as well. As part of his job he also works from home in the sense of answering calls emails etc & doesn’t have a desk in an office his truck is basically his office. He completes a mileage form each month showing business use only.

should he be paying tax on the truck?

DullGreyGuy

Discountqueens said:

My husband has received a new tax code that shows van benefit however as far as we’re concerned the truck isn’t used for personal use.

My husband travels all over visiting building sites & attending meetings visiting at least 5 different sites per day. He travels home from site & the truck is parked up unless he goes to work. He can get a call on weekend or bank holiday & need to travel to site as well. As part of his job he also works from home in the sense of answering calls emails etc & doesn’t have a desk in an office his truck is basically his office. He completes a mileage form each month showing business use only.

should he be paying tax on the truck?

It's exceptionally hard to convince HMRC that a vehicle parked at home has no personal use. 

Does he have no regular sites? Every day is a different place, never going to an office etc? Most forget that commuting to your regular place of work is personal travel not business.

singhini

i queried this with HMRC and my employer a few years ago. i had a company car and two personal cars and i tried to explain that i never used the company car for personal use. Both my employer and HMRC told me that not using the car was my choice, however i had the "option" of using it by the sheer fact the cars on my drive (and thus i had to pay company car tax). Had i left the car at head office then perhaps they could remove it from my P11d (that was never an option as i was a sales rep at the time and head office was 3 hours away). 

i then refused to pay for private mileage incurred on  Saturdays (because i had charged the car on Friday night using my personal electric and if i then drove it to the supermarket on Saturday morning in essence i have paid for that mileage twice). My employer told me "then don't charge it".

i then opted to use the car all the time and made sure it did 60,000 miles within 18 months and thus i was entitled to a new car!

They way i understood it was the fact the vans on your drive and you have access to it for personal use if you wanted to use it, then that's enough for HMRC to charge tax (the fact you don't use it is up to you). 

Albermarle

He needs to speak to his employer. At some point they must have included the van/personal use on his P11d.
Have you see his P11d for the last tax year 24/25 ? 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Albermarle said:

He needs to speak to his employer. At some point they must have included the van/personal use on his P11d.
Have you see his P11d for the last tax year 24/25 ? 

This ^^^

If the new code is because the employer has filed a P11D for 2024-25 with Van Benefit included then the only way to get this changed is for the employer to notify HMRC that the P11D was wrong.

Nomunnofun1

DullGreyGuy said:

Discountqueens said:

My husband has received a new tax code that shows van benefit however as far as we’re concerned the truck isn’t used for personal use.

My husband travels all over visiting building sites & attending meetings visiting at least 5 different sites per day. He travels home from site & the truck is parked up unless he goes to work. He can get a call on weekend or bank holiday & need to travel to site as well. As part of his job he also works from home in the sense of answering calls emails etc & doesn’t have a desk in an office his truck is basically his office. He completes a mileage form each month showing business use only.

should he be paying tax on the truck?

It's exceptionally hard to convince HMRC that a vehicle parked at home has no personal use. 

Does he have no regular sites? Every day is a different place, never going to an office etc? Most forget that commuting to your regular place of work is personal travel not business.

It’s actually, and always has been the case, that the van is ‘available’ for private use not whether or not it has been used privately. 

If so available there is a benefit unless usage is deemed to be ‘insignificant’ which completely muddies the waters. 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cars-and-vans-available-for-private-use-when-a-benefit-charge-is-incurred-480-chapter-11

Bookworm225

singhini said:

They way i understood it was the fact the vans on your drive and you have access to it for personal use if you wanted to use it, then that's enough for HMRC to charge tax (the fact you don't use it is up to you). 

correct
HMRC consider the test is whether the vehicle is "available" for private use, not does it get used privately

the only sure and certain way to avoid a BIK is to leave the vehicle at the employer's premises and collect it from there each day. Not so easy if you work from home...

Albermarle

Maybe the employer can check the mileage of the van each month, and compare that to the business miles claimed by the employee. If they match up, then that 'proves' there is no personal use, which might persuade the employer to remove it from the P11d.

Alternatively the employee could ask the employer for compensation for the unwanted extra tax they are having to pay.

Hoenir

Albermarle said:

Maybe the employer can check the mileage of the van each month, and compare that to the business miles claimed by the employee.

During quiet periods in the office. I used to get members of the finance team to spot check mileage distances claimed on expense claims. Amazing what people will try to cover up to benefit themselves.