VW Amarok Company Car Tax: April 2025 Rules, Van vs Car

Company car tax on a VW Amarok now depends almost entirely on when your employer acquired it. If the pickup was purchased, leased, or ordered before 6 April 2025, it can still be taxed as a van, giving a flat taxable benefit of £4,170 for 2026/27. If it was acquired on or after that date, HMRC treats it as a car, and the taxable benefit jumps to roughly £22,000 or more, calculated from list price and CO2 emissions. For a basic-rate taxpayer, that is the difference between about £83 a month and about £371 a month in tax on the vehicle alone.

Why the Amarok’s Tax Treatment Changed in April 2025

Until April 2025, HMRC borrowed the VAT test for benefit-in-kind purposes: a double-cab pickup with a payload of at least one tonne counted as a van. The Amarok Style and PanAmericana clear that threshold, with payloads between roughly 1,000 and 1,050 kg depending on options.¹ Van status meant a cheap, flat BIK charge no matter what the truck cost.

From 6 April 2025, HMRC dropped the payload shortcut for income tax and National Insurance. Classification now turns on whether the vehicle’s construction is “primarily suited for the conveyance of goods.” Because a double-cab pickup is roughly as good at carrying people as it is at carrying cargo, HMRC treats it as a car.² The statute itself is unchanged; Section 115 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 still defines a van as a goods vehicle of up to 3,500 kg whose construction is primarily suited to carrying goods.³ Only HMRC’s interpretation shifted.

One boundary worth marking: this reclassification applies to income tax and NIC only. The VAT position is unchanged, and the one-tonne payload test still governs whether a business can reclaim input VAT on the purchase.² The same Amarok can therefore be a “car” for BIK and a “van” for VAT.

Who Still Qualifies for Van Treatment

If your employer purchased, leased, or ordered the Amarok before 6 April 2025, transitional rules let you keep van BIK treatment. The protection runs until the earliest of three events: the vehicle is sold or otherwise disposed of, the lease expires, or 5 April 2029.²

Transitional treatment also survives an internal transfer. If one driver leaves and the Amarok passes to a colleague, the employer can keep reporting it as a van, provided there has been no disposal or lease expiry in between.² Once the window closes for any reason, the vehicle must be reported as a car from that point on. For businesses weighing whether to replace an existing Amarok, the math strongly favors keeping the current vehicle for as long as the transitional rules hold.

What You Pay Under Van Treatment

Van BIK ignores list price, CO2, and engine size. For 2026/27, the flat van benefit is £4,170.⁴ If the employer also provides fuel for private journeys, the flat van fuel benefit adds £798, taking the combined taxable benefit to £4,968.⁵

The tax you actually pay is that £4,968 multiplied by your marginal rate:

Basic rate (20%): £993.60 a year, about £83 a month
Higher rate (40%): £1,987.20 a year, about £166 a month
Additional rate (45%): £2,235.60 a year, about £186 a month

What You Pay Under Car Treatment

An Amarok acquired on or after 6 April 2025 is taxed like any other company car, using its P11D value and CO2 output. Every current Amarok diesel produces between 269 and 282 g/km of CO2, depending on trim.¹ That puts every variant in the top BIK bracket of 37% for 2026/27.⁶ The diesel supplement of up to four percentage points would normally apply, but the 37% cap already applies, so it adds nothing.

Amarok list prices currently run from £57,685 for the Style to £61,585 for the Aventura.⁷ The P11D value (list price minus first-registration fee and vehicle excise duty) is slightly lower. Take a mid-range PanAmericana with a P11D value of roughly £60,150: the taxable benefit is £60,150 × 37% = £22,256. Tax on the vehicle alone works out as:

Basic rate (20%): £4,451 a year, about £371 a month
Higher rate (40%): £8,902 a year, about £742 a month
Additional rate (45%): £10,015 a year, about £835 a month

Compared with £993.60 under van rules, a basic-rate driver pays roughly four and a half times more in tax under car treatment, before any fuel benefit is added.

Fuel Provided by the Employer

Under van rules the fuel benefit is a flat £798 regardless of private mileage.⁵ Under car rules the calculation uses a multiplier. For 2026/27 that multiplier is £29,200.⁸ Applying the Amarok’s 37% BIK band produces a taxable fuel benefit of £10,804. A higher-rate driver pays £4,322 in tax on fuel alone, which is more than the combined van benefit and van fuel benefit put together.

Both charges are all-or-nothing. A single private trip on employer-provided fuel triggers the full annual benefit. The only way to avoid it is to reimburse the employer for every private mile. HMRC publishes advisory fuel rates for this: for diesel vehicles over 2,000cc, which covers the Amarok’s 3.0-litre engine, the rate is currently 23 pence per mile.⁹ Keeping a mileage log and paying back private miles at that rate removes the fuel benefit entirely without affecting the vehicle BIK.

Payload, VAT, and Capital Allowances

Payload no longer decides BIK classification, but it still matters for VAT recovery and, historically, for eligibility for the transitional van treatment described above. VAT-registered businesses can reclaim the 20% VAT on an Amarok whose payload reaches one tonne, and HMRC has confirmed this VAT position is unaffected by the April 2025 change.¹⁰ The Style and PanAmericana usually clear the threshold, but the Aventura’s 866 kg payload does not, and factory options plus aftermarket accessories such as hardtops and bed liners can push a borderline vehicle below one tonne. Check the weight plate on the actual truck rather than relying on brochure figures.¹

Capital allowances have also tightened. An Amarok classified as a van used to attract the Annual Investment Allowance or full expensing, giving up to 100% first-year relief. An Amarok classified as a car from April 2025 cannot use either.¹¹ Because its CO2 emissions exceed 50 g/km, it lands in the special rate pool and receives writing-down allowances at just 6% a year on a reducing balance, spreading tax relief over many years. HMRC applies the old capital allowances treatment for expenditure incurred up to 1 October 2025 where the purchase was contracted before April 2025; after that, car treatment applies regardless of when the order was placed.

What Employers Pay and When to Report

Employers pay Class 1A National Insurance at 15% on the total BIK value reported for each employee.¹² On a van-treated Amarok with fuel (£4,968 benefit), that is £745.20 per driver per year. On a car-treated PanAmericana with fuel (roughly £33,060 in combined benefits), Class 1A rises to about £4,959 per driver, more than six times higher. Across a fleet of several Amaroks, the reclassification can add tens of thousands of pounds to annual employer NIC.

Benefits are reported on form P11D, with the P11D(b) summary filed by 6 July after the end of the tax year. Employees must receive their copies by the same date. Class 1A National Insurance is due by 22 July if paid electronically, or 19 July by cheque. Late filing draws penalties of £100 per 50 employees for each month or part-month the P11D(b) is overdue, plus interest on any late Class 1A payment.¹³

Employers relying on transitional van treatment should hold on to proof that the vehicle was purchased, leased, or ordered before 6 April 2025, along with the payload specification and any private mileage records. If HMRC queries the classification later, those documents are the first line of defence.

1
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The Amarok Brochure
2
HM Revenue & Customs. Employment Income Manual – Car Benefit: Double Cab Pickups 6 April 2025 Onwards
3
Legislation.gov.uk. Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 – Section 115
4
GOV.UK. Expenses and Benefits: Company Vans and Fuel
5
GOV.UK. Van Benefit Charge and Fuel Benefit Charges for Cars and Vans for Tax Year 2026 to 2027
6
GOV.UK. Work Out the Appropriate Percentage for Company Car Benefits (480 Appendix 2)
7
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. The Amarok Price List
8
GOV.UK. Travel – Mileage and Fuel Rates and Allowances
9
GOV.UK. Advisory Fuel Rates
10
HMRC. VAT Input Tax – Motoring Expenses: Double Cab Pick-Ups
11
HM Revenue and Customs. Capital Allowances Manual – CA23511 – Plant and Machinery Allowances: Cars: Double Cab Pick-Ups
12
GOV.UK. Rates and Thresholds for Employers 2026 to 2027
13
GOV.UK. Expenses and Benefits for Employers: Deadlines