What is a P11D Form?

Every year, UK employers must tell HMRC about any taxable perks and benefits in kind (BIK) they’ve given to staff – and the P11D is the form they use to do it.

If your pay package includes extras beyond your salary, such as a company car, private health cover, or an interest-free loan, your employer will record the value of those benefits on a P11D so that the correct income tax can be collected.

In this guide we cover which benefits need reporting, the key tax year P11D deadlines, how your tax code is affected, and what the move to mandatory payrolling from April 2027 means for the future of the P11D.

P11D form explained

The P11D form is produced by an employer and given to an employee after the end of each tax year so they know the value of the company benefits that they have paid tax on during that tax year.

HMRC are also sent a copy of the P11D so they can update your PAYE records with the type and value of any company benefits you received during the tax year.

Your employer needs to give HMRC your P11D so they can update your tax record to ensure you pay the right amount of income tax.

Key point: Our P11D guide lets you know more about taxable company benefits, when to expect a P11D form from your employer and how to check that the figures entered on yours are correct.

Should I get a P11D form?

If you receive a taxable company benefit then you would normally receive a P11D from your employer after the tax year ends.

To get a form P11D you need to be:

• An employee or director who has received taxable benefits in kind during the tax year
• In receipt of company benefits which are classed as taxable and have not already been taxed through payroll

IMPORTANT: Since April 2016, there is no minimum earnings threshold for P11D reporting.

All employees and directors who receive reportable benefits require a P11D, regardless of how much they earn.

If your employer chooses to payroll your benefits instead, you won’t receive a separate P11D as the tax is already being collected through your wages.

If HMRC classes a company benefit as taxable you will pay income tax on the benefit just like you do on your employment income.

P11D benefits and how they’re calculated

What are P11D benefits?

A number of company benefits exist that need to be entered on a P11D.

Some of the most common P11D benefits include a company car or van, private health insurance, or interest-free loans.

The P11D form has 14 sections covering the following P11D expenses and benefits:

• Section A: Assets transferred
• Section B: Payments made on behalf of employee
• Section C: Credit cards and vouchers
• Section D: Living accommodation
• Section E: Mileage allowances
• Section F: Cars and car fuel
• Section G: Company vans
• Section H: Beneficial loans
• Section I: Medical / health insurance
• Section J: Qualifying relocation payments
• Section K: Services supplied
• Section L: Assets placed at employee’s disposal
• Section M: Other items
• Section N: Expenses payments

If your employer provides you with a loan that is interest-free or charged at a rate below the official rate of interest, and the total balance exceeds £10,000 at any point during the year, HMRC treats this as a taxable benefit that must be reported on a P11D.

Calculating P11D benefits

It’s important that you make sure you get your P11D so you can check it to see if it’s correct. If the P11D is wrong then you will not pay the correct amount of income tax.

You should check the value of your company benefit(s) are correctly reported on your P11D.

For benefits like a company health scheme this is pretty easy but if you receive a company car it can sometimes become a little confusing.

Due to the way HMRC calculates a company car benefit or BIK tax it’s worth using their company car and fuel benefit calculator to check your figures.

Worked example: how a company car affects your tax

To help explain how a P11D benefit works in practice, here’s a simple example showing how a company car can affect your tax code and the amount of income tax you pay.

Example: Company car P11D benefit

Sarah is a basic rate (20%) taxpayer with a company car that has a P11D benefit value of £5,000 for the 2025/26 tax year.

• Standard personal allowance: £12,570
• Minus: Company car benefit value: –£5,000
• Adjusted tax-free allowance: £7,570

This means Sarah’s tax code would change from 1257L to 757L, and she would pay an additional £1,000 in income tax over the year (£5,000 × 20%).

HMRC adjusts her tax code so this extra tax is spread across her monthly pay.

If Sarah were a higher rate (40%) taxpayer, the same £5,000 benefit would cost her £2,000 in additional income tax.

What happens if I don’t get a P11D or lost it?

Your employer should provide you with a P11D automatically after the tax year ends.

If you have not received one by early July, contact your payroll department to request a copy.

Employers are not legally required to give you a P11D, but they must inform you of the value of each taxable benefit you received during the year.

If your employer has not given you a P11D, you can also check your HMRC Personal Tax Account or the HMRC app where your benefit details appear once your employer has submitted the information to HMRC.

If you have lost your P11D, these are also the quickest ways to find a copy check:

• your Personal Tax Account online
• use the HMRC mobile app
• or ask your payroll department for a replacement.

P11D and your tax code

Having a company benefit will mean your taxable income will be increased and you’ll get a lower tax code, resulting in you paying more income tax.

If your tax code does not include the correct benefits you will either pay too much or too little income tax.

If you stop receiving a company benefit or a benefit changes you must ensure that HMRC knows so they can adjust your tax code accordingly.

For example, if you stop receiving a company benefit during a tax year and HMRC don’t update your tax code you will keep paying tax on a benefit you don’t have.

This is one of the most common reasons people are owed a tax rebate.

Tax-free and trivial benefits

Are some company benefits tax free?

Some company benefits provided by your employer are exempted from tax and don’t need to be put on a P11D. These include:

• Eating in the company’s cafeteria or canteen
• Use of a company mobile phone (one per employee)
• Parking facilities at your workplace
• Annual staff events such as Christmas parties, provided they do not exceed £150 per person (including VAT)
• Employer-provided bicycles under the cycle to work scheme
• Eye tests and corrective glasses required for VDU use

For the annual events exemption to apply, it must be a formal annual function. Informal events may instead fall within the trivial benefits rules below.

What are trivial benefits in kind?

HMRC classes some company benefits as “trivial”, meaning they don’t need to be reported on a P11D because HMRC deems them as insignificant.

A company benefit is typically classed as trivial if all of the following conditions are met:

• It has a value of £50 or less
• It is not related to work-related performance or recognition
• It is not cash or a cash voucher (e.g. a gift card that can only be used at a specific retailer may qualify, but a general-purpose voucher would not)
• It isn’t part of your contract of employment
• It doesn’t form part of a salary sacrifice arrangement

Self assessment, expenses and pensions

Self assessment tax returns and your P11D

If you fill in a self assessment tax return you will need to enter the figures from your P11D in the relevant box in the employment section of your tax return.

If you don’t, your tax return will be incorrect and in theory you won’t pay enough income tax, which HMRC will ask you to repay in most cases.

HMRC will check your tax return against the P11D form submitted by your employer to see if there is a difference between what was entered on your P11D and your tax return.

Benefits reported on a P11D that relate to beneficial loans should also be included on your self assessment.

Are expenses included on a P11D?

If you receive a reimbursement from your employer for a work-related expense, the value may be exempted, which means there’s no requirement for it to be reported on a P11D.

One of the most frequent instances of an exempted business expense is travel on a work-related journey (not normal commuting).

There are several categories under which business expenses can qualify for exemption, including:

• Tools and equipment needed for your job
• Protective clothing like hi-vis jackets, safety gloves and footwear
• Professional fees and memberships (if you need to pay it to carry out your professional duties)
• Business phone calls from a personal phone where the employer reimburses the cost

Are employer contributions into my pension taxable?

Employee pension schemes that receive contributions from employers are generally not subject to income tax, as long as the amounts remain within the annual pension allowance limit.

If the pension annual allowance threshold is breached, additional income tax may be due, but this is an unlikely event for the majority of taxpayers.

Am I due a P11D tax rebate?

You could be due a P11D tax rebate if your tax code has been wrong. The reasons why your tax code could be wrong include:

• You have stopped receiving a company benefit and you still have the benefit in your tax code
• You have a company benefit that has reduced in value and your tax code has not been changed accordingly
• Your employer has used the wrong tax code against your salary
• A benefit has been reported incorrectly on your P11D with a higher value than it should be

If you think your tax code is wrong because of your company benefits or for any other reason, you should contact HMRC so they can check your PAYE record and make any necessary adjustments.

Think you might be owed a tax rebate? If your P11D benefits have changed and your tax code wasn’t updated, you may have overpaid tax. Use our free Tax Refund Calculator to check.

P11D for employers and the P11D(b)

P11D for employers

Employers need to submit a P11D to HMRC for each employee which declares the value and type of company benefits paid.

The deadline for HMRC to receive the P11D declaration is 6 July for the previous tax year. Failure to submit the P11D in full by the deadline can lead to HMRC fines and penalties.

A business doesn’t need to complete a P11D if it already collects tax on benefits through the payroll.

This approach – known as payrolling benefits in kind – is currently optional, but will become compulsory for most benefits from April 2027.

P11D forms can only be filed electronically. Paper submissions are no longer accepted by HMRC outside of exceptional circumstances.

Most employers submit through HMRC’s PAYE Online service or their own commercial payroll software.

What is a P11D(b) form?

A P11D(b) form is only for employers and is used to report the Class 1A National Insurance contributions liability on any company benefits and expenses paid to employees.

The P11D(b) serves as a comprehensive record of all benefits – both those declared on P11Ds and those processed through payroll – that your business has provided over the course of a year.

As far as HMRC is concerned, it’s confirmation that these are all the benefits and expenses your company has distributed within that year, and you’ve intentionally omitted nothing.

The P11D(b) form should be submitted to HMRC at the same time as the P11D, by 6 July.

Class 1A National Insurance contributions calculated on the P11D(b) must be paid by 22 July (electronic payment) or 19 July (cheque).

Note for employers already payrolling benefits: If you have voluntarily opted to payroll benefits for 2025/26 or 2026/27, you must still file a P11D(b) and settle the Class 1A NIC due by July.

That separate obligation only falls away once mandatory payrolling takes effect and NIC is collected through the regular payroll cycle from April 2027.

P11D deadlines and penalties

Key deadlines

You should receive your P11D from your employer after the tax year ends (from 6 April). Employers have until 6 July to submit P11D details to HMRC.

Key deadlines example for the 2025/26 tax year:

• 2025/26 tax year ends: 5 April 2026
• P11D and P11D(b) submitted to HMRC: 6 July 2026
• Employee copies of P11D provided: 6 July 2026
• Class 1A NIC payment (electronic): 22 July 2026
• Class 1A NIC payment (cheque): 19 July 2026

If you need your P11D urgently it’s worth asking your payroll department to see if they can help you.

Retaining your P11D is crucial as it might be required to complete a tax return or check your tax code.

Penalties for late filing

HMRC takes P11D compliance seriously. If your employer files late or submits inaccurate information, significant penalties can apply:

• Late P11D filing: £100 per 50 employees per month (or part month)
• Inaccurate P11D (careless or deliberate): Up to £3,000 per form
• Late Class 1A NIC payment (30+ days): 5% of amount owed
• Late Class 1A NIC payment (6+ months): 10% of amount owed
• Late Class 1A NIC payment (12+ months): 15% of amount owed + interest

Although these penalties fall on the employer, late submissions can also delay your tax code being updated, which may cause unexpected deductions from your salary later in the year.

Mandatory payrolling of benefits from April 2027

One of the biggest changes to the P11D process in decades is starting on 6 April 2027.

Employers will be required to tax most employee benefits through their regular payroll run rather than filing separate P11D forms at the end of the year.

The shift, known as mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind, will bring the way perks are taxed into line with how salaries are already handled under PAYE.

In practice, this means the value of your company benefits will be added to your taxable pay each month and the tax collected through your wages automatically.

Rather than waiting until the following year for HMRC to adjust your tax code, you’ll pay as you go – much like you already do with your basic salary.

KEY CHANGE: The 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years still require P11D submission as normal. From April 2027, P11D forms will only be needed for employer-provided accommodation and interest-free or low-interest loans. All other benefits must be payrolled.

What does this mean for employees?

• You’ll see the tax on your benefits deducted directly from your monthly or weekly pay
• Your payslip will show the taxable value of your benefits, making tax more transparent
• There should be fewer unexpected tax code changes mid-year
• You may still need to report beneficial loans and accommodation benefits on a self assessment tax return if applicable

What does this mean for employers?

• Most P11D and P11D(b) forms will no longer be required from 2027/28 onwards
• Benefit values will be included in the Full Payment Submission (FPS) each pay period, alongside normal salary data
• Employer Class 1A NIC on benefits will be collected through the payroll cycle too, doing away with the separate July settlement for most employers
• Payroll software will need significant updates – the FPS is expected to gain upwards of 100 additional data fields to capture the detail currently held on P11D forms
• Employers must still provide annual benefit statements to employees by 1 June following the tax year

Timeline of changes

2025/26 & 2026/27: P11D submission continues as normal. Employers can voluntarily register to payroll benefits through HMRC’s PAYE online service.

• 5 April 2026: Voluntary payrolling registration closes for the 2026/27 tax year. Last chance to opt in before it becomes mandatory.
• 6 April 2027: Mandatory payrolling begins. All benefits (except accommodation and loans) must be reported through payroll. HMRC will automatically remove benefits from employee tax codes.
• 2027/28 (first year): HMRC will apply a “light touch” approach to penalties (except for deliberate errors). Standard penalty regime applies from 2028/29 onwards.

If you’re an employer, it’s worth considering whether to start payrolling benefits voluntarily now to test your systems before it becomes compulsory.

Speak to your accountant or payroll provider about preparing for these changes.

Related PAYE tax forms

What is a P60? A P60 is a statement showing how much you’ve earned and the tax you’ve paid in the last tax year.

What is a P45? A P45 shows how much tax you’ve paid on your salary so far in the tax year when you leave a job.

What is a P800? A P800 is a tax calculation from HMRC telling you if you’ve paid too much or too little tax.

What is a P46? A P46 was the form used to inform HMRC when you started a new job without a P45. It has been replaced by a starter checklist which essentially provides the same information.

See all income tax forms explained in our comprehensive tax FAQs section.