As mentioned in the diary of main tax events, form P11D for reporting benefits provided to employees and directors needs to be submitted online by 6 July. The most common benefits provided are company cars, private healthcare and loans at less than the 2.25% HMRC official rate of interest.

Where company cars are provided it must be remembered that there may be an additional taxable benefit where private fuel is provided for the company car. This additional taxable benefit does not apply where private fuel for 2023/24 is fully reimbursed by the employee by 6 July 2024.

Note that where an employee has use of a “pool car” then there is no taxable benefit and an entry is not required on form P11D.  Furthermore, the employer would not be required to pay Class 1A national insurance contributions. The conditions for a car to be treated as a pool cars are very strict and often misunderstood – see below: –

What is a pool car?

The conditions for a company car to be treated as a pool car are set out in the employment income legislation:

(a) the car was made available to, and actually used by, more than one employee,

(b) the car was made available, in the case of each of those employees, by reason of the employee’s employment,

(c) the car was not ordinarily used by one of those employees to the exclusion of the others,

(d) in the case of each of those employees, any private use of the car made by the employee was merely incidental to the employee’s other use of the car in that year, and

(e) the car was not normally kept overnight on or in the vicinity of any residential premises where any of the employees was residing, except while being kept overnight on premises occupied by the person making the car available to them.