There are two types of van road tax people pay on their vans - vehicle excise duty and personal tax.

You’ll likely be familiar with what most people refer to as road tax, but it's also known as vehicle excise duty (VED) which is the tax you pay to use the roads. You pay this once a year as a lump sum, every six months or monthly via direct debit.

Looking for tax information on pick-up trucks? Read our guide on pick-up truck tax.

How much is the tax on your van will depend on whether you want to pay it in one lump sum or by direct debit.

For 2022/2023 most vans will have to pay £290 in tax as a lump sum or, £159.50 as a lump sum for six months or £152.25 as a recurring six monthly direct debit. There’s also the option of paying £25.38 a month by direct debit, which will mean you pay £304.50 overall.

As with everything in life, though, there are some exceptions. These are based around what year the van was first registered with the key dates being before 1 March 2001 and then two periods of between 1 March 2003 and 31 December 2006 and between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2010. This is because Euro 4 and Euro 5 vans pay slightly different rates (they’re actually the cheapest of all).

How much is tax on my van?

Vans registered from 1 March 2001 (TC39)
Road tax (VED) cost	£290
Payment type	Monthly	Six monthly
Outright	n/a	£159.50
Direct Debit	£25.38*	£152.25

Euro 4 vans registered between 1 March 2003 and 31 December 2006 (TC36)
£140

Euro 5 vans registered between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2010 (TC36)
£140

Registered before 1 March 2001 up to 1,549cc engine size (TC11)
£180

Vans registered before 1 March 2001 with larger than 1,549cc engine size (TC11)
£295

The other type of van tax you might have to pay is personal tax, or a BIK (Benefit In Kind). This is a charge some employees will have to pay if they are allowed to use work vans for their own personal use. 

Thankfully if you only use your van for business purposes you don’t have to pay, and if you are self-employed or a sole trader you won’t have to pay the company van tax either. It’s only if you’ve bought a van through your company, or if a company has given you a van and instructed you that you can use it for personal use. The Benefit In Kind (BIK) isn’t paid to your employer, but it goes to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), as it’s a tax that is proportionate to your salary.

The RHA has launched RHA Vans, a new membership category for van operators.

Membership has been designed specifically for van fleet operators or owner drivers and includes an accreditation scheme for operators to begin incorporating the recognised standards of an RHA audit of compliance and adherence to best practice. It follows the launch of RHA Coaches earlier this year.

This is in preparation for the long-awaited statutory O-licensing scheme for larger van fleet operators expected to be introduced in the UK in the next two years, following the start of EU regulation of international van operators in 2022. The UK scheme is expected to focus on limiting the hours driven by van drivers in the home delivery sector, which have become a growing concern in the Covid-19 pandemic.

RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said vans had become an “enormous part of the new way of shopping” and that the “exponential growth in van usage had caught the market out”.

“Large fleets are perhaps not operating as well as they should be,” he said. “Asking drivers to do 300 or 400 drops a day seems unsafe.”

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While the UK licensing scheme is expected be similar to the EU’s, Burnett said the UK government wanted to “lead not follow” and the RHA was in discussions with the DfT to “help set the agenda” and make sure operators’ voices were heard.

Burnett added that the RHA Vans membership was designed to offer operators “practical rather than theoretical support” that would help them “stay compliant and drive cost out of the business”.

Van members have access to the RHA fuel card as well as the full range of technical and legal member services. It was launched at the CV Show with a Ford Transit Custom, Britain's best-selling van, wrapped in a special RHA livery.