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Following the noise and fury on the "Commercial and VAT reclaim" thread, I reached out to Mark Tennant and Gary Pearson, (Head of Sales & Marketing, UK, INEOS Automotive) and got a response from Gary:
"Hi Jeremy,
thanks for connecting; hopefully either Mark Tennant said I would be in touch or you made the link! Happy to answer this and we are actually prepping a FAQ document to offer to the online forums and Facebook groups that include this amongst other things. On the DVLA side we’re all fine and N1 approved for the lower road tax, road fund licence etc. on 2- and 5-seat non-Belstaff models. HMRC side is trickier (not least because their list of approved vehicles is in helpfully from 2014) so we haven’t made claims regarding VAT, BIK or NIC for that reason.
We have focussed on the core competency of the vehicle, not its UK tax status not least because it’s a global vehicle and tax policy can change at any time. HMRC want either a Tonne+ payload or a specification that meets their definition of a car-derived van. They set this out very clearly and Grenadier doesn’t meet either of these in its current form (not the 2-seat or the 5-seat).
We know that on the customer side of things, there are many customers with a tax situation where they have their own plans or options but that’s for individuals to investigate. For every 10 customers I speak to I’d say I get at least 6 different views as to what they will do/what their situation is.
Personally I would like to see the 2-seater approved as a commercial as I think it fits the bill, certainly far more than many other vehicles that have the status. Approaching HMRC is something we have as an option now we have all of the finalised homologation data but this is not a straightforward matter either.
I agree with you that it’s unlikely they would give us the status on the 5-seater. We are constantly updating our information that is held at customer services, in our Press Q&As and on our website and we’re making another change to the website text soon to make it clearer. I hope that helps? Do you think a FAQ for the online groups would be useful? We offered some of the groups this a while back but thought we’d revisit it. Grateful for feedback as we know it’s complex.
Best, Gary"
I hope this makes things clear, although I am sure many people will be disappointed. HMRC does offer one solution; the Grenadier could be a "Pool Car", but that means it has to be kept overnight at the business premises and a log has to kept of all usage, with minimal personal mileage. (There are some technical adjustments, like full vehicle tracking, that can be made to minimise the impact of these restrictions, but you will need a clued-up accountant to be HMRC proof!)
"Hi Jeremy,
thanks for connecting; hopefully either Mark Tennant said I would be in touch or you made the link! Happy to answer this and we are actually prepping a FAQ document to offer to the online forums and Facebook groups that include this amongst other things. On the DVLA side we’re all fine and N1 approved for the lower road tax, road fund licence etc. on 2- and 5-seat non-Belstaff models. HMRC side is trickier (not least because their list of approved vehicles is in helpfully from 2014) so we haven’t made claims regarding VAT, BIK or NIC for that reason.
We have focussed on the core competency of the vehicle, not its UK tax status not least because it’s a global vehicle and tax policy can change at any time. HMRC want either a Tonne+ payload or a specification that meets their definition of a car-derived van. They set this out very clearly and Grenadier doesn’t meet either of these in its current form (not the 2-seat or the 5-seat).
We know that on the customer side of things, there are many customers with a tax situation where they have their own plans or options but that’s for individuals to investigate. For every 10 customers I speak to I’d say I get at least 6 different views as to what they will do/what their situation is.
Personally I would like to see the 2-seater approved as a commercial as I think it fits the bill, certainly far more than many other vehicles that have the status. Approaching HMRC is something we have as an option now we have all of the finalised homologation data but this is not a straightforward matter either.
I agree with you that it’s unlikely they would give us the status on the 5-seater. We are constantly updating our information that is held at customer services, in our Press Q&As and on our website and we’re making another change to the website text soon to make it clearer. I hope that helps? Do you think a FAQ for the online groups would be useful? We offered some of the groups this a while back but thought we’d revisit it. Grateful for feedback as we know it’s complex.
Best, Gary"
I hope this makes things clear, although I am sure many people will be disappointed. HMRC does offer one solution; the Grenadier could be a "Pool Car", but that means it has to be kept overnight at the business premises and a log has to kept of all usage, with minimal personal mileage. (There are some technical adjustments, like full vehicle tracking, that can be made to minimise the impact of these restrictions, but you will need a clued-up accountant to be HMRC proof!)
