Expenses and benefits provided to employees in the tax year to 5 April 2022 need to be reported to HMRC on a form P11D (or online equivalent) by 6 July 2022.
HMRC has been discouraging employers from using paper P11D forms for some time and in recent years it has provided an interactive PDF form for submitting the information online. However, this PDF form has previously led to numerous problems, so this year HMRC has scrapped that method of submitting the P11D.
In 2022 you will have to use HMRC’s PAYE Online for Employers service (for up to 500 employees), use commercial payroll software or revert to paper P11D forms. This could come as a shock if you don’t use the PAYE Online Service for your payroll.
Instead, it may be worthwhile ‘payrolling’ any regular employee benefits. This means you add the cash equivalent of the benefit to the employee’s pay and the employee is charged tax, but not NIC, on that amount. You still need to work out the class 1A NIC on the value of the benefit and pay that over after the end of the tax year.
In order to payroll benefits, you need to apply to HMRC online in advance of the start of the tax year for which payrolling is to apply, so this may be something to consider for 2023/24 if you do not payroll benefits at the moment.
