diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 32fc430fcf..b373a5c250 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ Breaking Changes
   values as well as the LDAP message identifier. The value within the LDAP logs
   will be the most recently observed one.
 
+- BIF methods now return a ``ValPtr`` directly instead of a ``BifReturnVal`` object
+  which was just a thin wrapper around ``ValPtr``. This may cause compilation errors
+  in C++ code that was calling BIF methods directly.
+
 New Functionality
 -----------------
 
diff --git a/auxil/bifcl b/auxil/bifcl
index cfbd7e905e..22c0317628 160000
--- a/auxil/bifcl
+++ b/auxil/bifcl
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit cfbd7e905eae6d84542b7b5f761a9e67c20e50c5
+Subproject commit 22c031762832b72c2f7b4ac8bbe8102d66b09ccc
diff --git a/src/BifReturnVal.cc b/src/BifReturnVal.cc
deleted file mode 100644
index 0a2e3593e4..0000000000
--- a/src/BifReturnVal.cc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-// See the file "COPYING" in the main distribution directory for copyright.
-
-#include "zeek/BifReturnVal.h"
-
-#include "zeek/Val.h"
-
-namespace zeek::detail {
-
-BifReturnVal::BifReturnVal(std::nullptr_t) noexcept {}
-
-} // namespace zeek::detail
diff --git a/src/BifReturnVal.h b/src/BifReturnVal.h
deleted file mode 100644
index 79445b741f..0000000000
--- a/src/BifReturnVal.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,32 +0,0 @@
-// See the file "COPYING" in the main distribution directory for copyright.
-
-#pragma once
-
-#include "zeek/zeek-config.h"
-
-#include "zeek/IntrusivePtr.h"
-
-namespace zeek {
-
-class Val;
-using ValPtr = IntrusivePtr<Val>;
-
-namespace detail {
-
-/**
- * A simple wrapper class to use for the return value of BIFs so that
- * they may return either a Val* or IntrusivePtr<Val> (the former could
- * potentially be deprecated).
- */
-class BifReturnVal {
-public:
-    template<typename T>
-    BifReturnVal(IntrusivePtr<T> v) noexcept : rval(AdoptRef{}, v.release()) {}
-
-    BifReturnVal(std::nullptr_t) noexcept;
-
-    ValPtr rval;
-};
-
-} // namespace detail
-} // namespace zeek
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 8b1007416f..febe2d3e4e 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -295,7 +295,6 @@ set(MAIN_SRCS
     Anon.cc
     Attr.cc
     Base64.cc
-    BifReturnVal.cc
     CCL.cc
     CompHash.cc
     Conn.cc
diff --git a/src/Func.cc b/src/Func.cc
index b399c80600..817f57fa6c 100644
--- a/src/Func.cc
+++ b/src/Func.cc
@@ -729,7 +729,7 @@ ValPtr BuiltinFunc::Invoke(Args* args, Frame* parent) const {
 
     const CallExpr* call_expr = parent ? parent->GetCall() : nullptr;
     call_stack.emplace_back(CallInfo{call_expr, this, *args});
-    auto result = std::move(func(parent, args).rval);
+    auto result = func(parent, args);
     call_stack.pop_back();
 
     if ( result && g_trace_state.DoTrace() ) {
diff --git a/src/Func.h b/src/Func.h
index 1a247123e5..fc01ba53d6 100644
--- a/src/Func.h
+++ b/src/Func.h
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@
 #include <utility>
 #include <vector>
 
-#include "zeek/BifReturnVal.h"
 #include "zeek/Obj.h"
 #include "zeek/Scope.h"
 #include "zeek/Stmt.h"
@@ -314,7 +313,7 @@ private:
     int current_priority = 0;
 };
 
-using built_in_func = BifReturnVal (*)(Frame* frame, const Args* args);
+using built_in_func = ValPtr (*)(Frame* frame, const Args* args);
 
 class BuiltinFunc final : public Func {
 public:
diff --git a/src/Hash.h b/src/Hash.h
index 3ef55b20ac..aaee8d3df3 100644
--- a/src/Hash.h
+++ b/src/Hash.h
@@ -37,12 +37,11 @@ class ODesc;
 namespace zeek::detail {
 
 class Frame;
-class BifReturnVal;
 
 } // namespace zeek::detail
 
 namespace zeek::BifFunc {
-extern zeek::detail::BifReturnVal md5_hmac_bif(zeek::detail::Frame* frame, const zeek::Args*);
+zeek::ValPtr md5_hmac_bif(zeek::detail::Frame* frame, const zeek::Args*);
 }
 
 namespace zeek::detail {
@@ -211,7 +210,7 @@ private:
     inline static bool seeds_initialized = false;
 
     friend void util::detail::hmac_md5(size_t size, const unsigned char* bytes, unsigned char digest[16]);
-    friend BifReturnVal BifFunc::md5_hmac_bif(zeek::detail::Frame* frame, const Args*);
+    friend ValPtr BifFunc::md5_hmac_bif(zeek::detail::Frame* frame, const Args*);
 };
 
 enum HashKeyTag { HASH_KEY_INT, HASH_KEY_DOUBLE, HASH_KEY_STRING };
diff --git a/src/zeek-bif.h b/src/zeek-bif.h
index 392b4f754f..3e7a53da9e 100644
--- a/src/zeek-bif.h
+++ b/src/zeek-bif.h
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 #pragma once
 
 // Headers to include by generated BiF code.
-#include "zeek/BifReturnVal.h"
 #include "zeek/Conn.h"
 #include "zeek/Event.h"
 #include "zeek/EventRegistry.h"
diff --git a/src/zeek-setup.cc b/src/zeek-setup.cc
index 54da694fa1..cb1b019c74 100644
--- a/src/zeek-setup.cc
+++ b/src/zeek-setup.cc
@@ -747,7 +747,7 @@ SetupResult setup(int argc, char** argv, Options* zopts) {
         auto ipbft =
             make_intrusive<FuncType>(make_intrusive<RecordType>(nullptr), base_type(TYPE_BOOL), FUNC_FLAVOR_FUNCTION);
         ipbid->SetType(std::move(ipbft));
-        auto init_bifs = [](Frame* frame, const Args* args) -> BifReturnVal {
+        auto init_bifs = [](Frame* frame, const Args* args) -> ValPtr {
             init_primary_bifs();
             return val_mgr->True();
         };
diff --git a/src/zeek.bif b/src/zeek.bif
index 770524ebda..8086ffed48 100644
--- a/src/zeek.bif
+++ b/src/zeek.bif
@@ -1461,7 +1461,7 @@ function sort%(v: any, ...%) : any
 	auto vv = v->As<zeek::VectorVal*>();
 	vv->Sort(comp);
 
-	return std::move(rval);
+	return rval;
 	%}
 
 ## Returns the order of the elements in a vector according to some
@@ -2721,7 +2721,7 @@ function to_addr%(ip: string%): addr
 		}
 
 	delete [] s;
-	return std::move(ret);
+	return ret;
 	%}
 
 ## Checks if a string is a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.