Commercial vehicle windows & tax

Commercial vehicle windows & tax

Author
Discussion

dilby

Original Poster:

8 posts

34 months

Thursday 2nd May
quotequote all
Hi everyone - my accountant is currently away for a little over 2 weeks and am in a hurry to source a new van which I’m finding confusing and was hoping some kind folks could help.

I am a videographer who travels around filming for clients, and need a van to fit my gear. However I regularly travel with a crew and need two rows of seats. There are several of these locally I’ve found that fit the bill but they all have windows next to the second row of seats, and from what I can read that means I can’t claim it as a business vehicle. Of course to me this seems odd, as having a growing business with bigger jobs is the very reason I need more seats, and I don’t really like the idea of putting people in the back without windows, makes me feel like a people smuggler or drug runner and I’m surpised it’s encouraged!

To confuse me more, it seems all my competitors have vans with windows in the back and they are clearly signwritten for the business; so is the assumption that they aren’t claiming for these or that it’s one of those grey area laws that there is more ifs and buts for me to consider? Or is it simply as black and white as I’ve stated?

And then to make matters even murkier, I’ve read that a double cab pickup truck is fine if it has windows in the back (not sure why a different shape changes everything) but is it correct that that’s my only way to have people in the back who can see outside? (Outside of having an electric vehicle, which from what i can understand isn’t very practical for larger loads at the moment.)

(I have a VAT registered limited company)

Thanks!