New Van Tax Rates 2025: Plus Road Tax Calculator
Although simpler than passenger cars, van tax for light commercial vehicles can still cause confusion – our handy guide explains all you need to know about van and pick-up tax.
Compared with cars and pick-ups, for which tax rules changed significantly in April 2025, van tax is fairly straightforward, with a flat rate tax - or VED as its also known - for most vans.
Pick-up truck tax changed significantly, however, but only for those with more than two passenger seats. If a pick-up is classed as a goods vehicle, it will still be taxed as a van.
Road tax calculator by reg
The key is to check how the vehicle is categorised by DVLA, which will be visible on the V5C. If it’s ‘N1’, then it’s a van designed for carrying goods with a gross vehicle weight of up to 3500kg.
This applies to almost every van on the market, the rare exceptions being some camper vans (classed as motor caravans by DVLA) and wheelchair-adapted vehicles.
To find out quickly, use our road tax calculator by reg above to work out your van tax rate for 2025.
Van tax rates for vans registered after March 2001
Van tax is now a simple one tier system with no emissions based amounts of expensive vehicle supplement as with car tax. These are the rates for vans registered on or after 1 March 2001 and not over 3500kg revenue weight (also known as maximum or gross vehicle weight). This also includes zero emission vehicles.
Tax year 2025 to 2026 (effective from April 1st 2025)
| Year | Tax amount |
|---|---|
| Standard rate 2025/2026 annual | £345 |
| Standard rate 2025/2026 six months | £189.75 |
Payments for VED can be made monthly by direct debit, or six-monthly or annually as one-off payments. Paying in 12 instalments by Direct Debit will cost you more at £362.25 for the year.
The vehicle's V5C registration document will give you the detail you need – if it’s classed as N1 it will be taxed as a van, but M1 signifies that it’s a dual-purpose vehicle - and therefore classified as a car for tax reasons.
Some vans were subject to some discounted rates. While those regimes have since been rescinded, those eligible models still attract the lower rate.
Electric van tax
Electric vans used to be exempt from car tax, but this changed in April 2025. Zero-emission vans now cost the same £345 per year to tax as all other models.
Euro 5 van tax rates
Euro 5 compliant vans pay a lower amount of tax. This applies to all vans registered between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2010, Euro 5 compliant and not over 3500kg. It also includes zero emission vehicles.
| Year | Tax amount |
|---|---|
| Standard rate 2025/2026 annual | £140 |
| Standard rate 2025/2026 six months | £77 |
Euro 4 van tax rates
If you own a van registered between 1 March 2003 and 31 December 2006 that is Euro 4 compliant and not over 3500kg revenue weight, you will pay the same lower tax rates as Euro 5 vans.
| Year | Tax amount |
|---|---|
| Standard rate 2025/2026 annual | £140 |
| Standard rate 2025/2026 six months | £77 |
Oddly, while it costs £147 to pay for the 12 months via direct debit, it's actually slightly cheaper to pay for six months through direct debit as it drops to £73.50.
Tax rates for vans registered before 2001
The system for vans registered between before 28 February 2001 is based exclusively on engine size. It's simple to understand with just two rates — one for those of 1549cc and below, the other for models of 1550cc and above.
Vans registered or manufactured before 1 January 1985 are exempt from paying tax, as long as they aren't used commercially for a trade or business
Effective from 1 April 2025, these are the current 2025 van tax rate.
Road tax vans registered before 1 March 2001
| Engine size | Tax year 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|
| 1549cc and below | £220 |
| Above 1549cc | £360 |
Pick-up truck tax rates
In terms of tax, all pick-up trucks, whether double cabs or single cabs, are still regarded as commercial vehicles. That means you pay the same standard rate as a panel van.
Tax year 2025 to 2026 (effective from April 1st 2025)
| Year | Tax amount |
|---|---|
| Standard rate 2025/2026 annual | £345 |
| Standard rate 2025/2026 six months | £189.75 |
Tax on camper vans
The rate of VED you pay on a camper van is entirely dependent on its classification, and whether it is recorded by DVLA as a passenger vehicle (M1), light goods vehicle (N1) or motor caravan (L), and this depends on its original state of manufacturer, whether it’s a conversion, or if it left the factory as a camper van in the first place.
Check out our guide to tax on camper vans to find out more.
Benefit-in-kind tax on company vans
If a van is used solely for business use, then there is no BIK liability. But if personal use is included for private journeys, you may be liable to pay for the benefit-in-kind.
The BIK tax rate on a van is set at a flat rate of £4020 for the 2025/26 tax year, but this isn’t what you actually pay – it’s the government’s valuation of the benefit.
Your personal tax liability is based on if you’re a 20% or 40% taxpayer. If you’re in the lower bracket you pay tax on 20% of £4020. That's £804, which is a £67 per month salary deduction.
A 40% taxpayer will incur an annual liability of £1608 - or £134 per month.
An additional benefit is assumed if your fuel is paid for – 20% taxpayers will need to pay a bill of £154 (£12.98 per month) while this increases to £308 (around £25 per month) for those in the 40% bracket.
This is reduced if you’re unable to use the van for 30 days in a row. And if you only ever use the van for work journeys, or if you’re a self-employed worker, then you are not liable for BIK tax at all.
HMRC does allow some leeway for what it deems to be "insignificant private use." This means that an employee is allowed to take the van home at the end of the working day and make the odd personal journey, such as stopping to get food on the way home.
Electric vans are different. While they are liable for VED ay £345 a year, the government is trying to incentivise companies to buy EVs, so has set the BIK tax rate for vans at zero.
There’s no fuel benefit charge either, if the electricity for charging is provided by your employer. That means there’s no charge at all for private use. At least for now.
Pick-up truck BIK tax
If you use a pick-up truck for your work, then the best option from a taxation point of view is to choose a single-cab pick-up, which has just two doors and two or three seats in one row.
Such trucks are classified as light commercial vehicles (N1) by HMRC, regardless of the payload weight they can carry, so are taxed in exactly the same way as vans.
But in April 2025, the rules on double cab (four-door) and extended-cab (two-door) pick-ups changed to close a loophole that saw many people skirting around the BIK rules for passenger cars by using them in the same way that they might use an SUV.
It means that double-cab versions of models such as the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-Max are taxed in exactly the same way as cars.
Before this, double-cab pick-ups with a payload capacity of more than one tonne had the same tax rules as a van, but HMRC now considers pick-ups with two rows of seats to be primarily for carrying passengers rather than cargo.
Double and extended cab trucks are now taxed as company cars instead of commercial vehicles, with the cost based on CO2 emissions, and most of them fall into the highest BIK bracket as they have large diesel engines.
That means a cost of around £6000 a year for a 20% taxpayer and up to £10,000 for those in the 40% bracket, making them unattractive to company users.
This can be reduced by looking at recent new models such as the Ford Ranger PHEV, which has much lower emissions and can reduce that liability by around 35%.
BIK rates on plug-in hybrid vans
Sadly, the BIK savings offered to electric van drivers don’t apply to increasingly popular plug-in hybrid models. These remain the same as petrol or diesel vans from a tax perspective.
