The deadline for filing forms P11D is 6 July 2016. You will be liable to a penalty of £100 per 50 employees for each month or part month your P11D(b) is late. The P11D(b) is the form used to submit your individual P11Ds to HMRC. You’ll also be charged penalties and interest if you’re late paying HMRC the employers’ Class 1A NIC due 19 July 2016 (22 July if you pay electronically).

Listed below are some of the common errors / mistakes made by employers when submitting their forms P11D. If you complete forms incorrectly and then file them, they will be returned to you for correction and re-filing. This may mean that you fail to meet the filing deadline:

  • Duplicated information submitted, for example where P11D information has already been filed online, the employer may submit the same information on paper to ensure ‘HMRC have received it’
  • Using a paper form that relates to the wrong tax year
  • Not ticking the ‘director’ box if the employee is a director
  • Not including some form of description or abbreviation, where amounts are included in sections A, B, L, M or N of the form
  • Leaving the ‘cash equivalent’ box empty where a figure has been entered in the corresponding ‘cost to you’ box
  • Sending forms P11D when they have also ticked the box in Part 5 of form P35 (in the Employer Annual Return) to indicate that forms P11D are not due
  • Where a benefit has been provided for mixed business and private use, some employers only enter the value of the private-use portion but full gross value of the benefit must be reported
  • Not completing the fuel benefit where this applies
  • Completing the ‘from’ and ‘to’ dates incorrectly in the ‘Dates car was available’ boxes by showing the whole tax year. For example, entering 06/04/2011 to 05/04/2012 to indicate the car was available throughout that year. But if the car had been available in the previous tax year, the ‘from’ box should not be completed and if the car is to be available in the next tax year, the ‘to’ box should not be completed

The following examples are a guide to, but not an exhaustive list, of circumstances, which might amount to a reasonable excuse for late filing:

  • The employer is a sole trader, or director of a ‘one man’ company, and has suffered a sudden and serious illness between the end of the tax year and the filing date, or has been affected by a prolonged and serious illness throughout the period
  • Unavoidable and unexpected absence close to the filing date because of business commitments or domestic emergencies
  • Accidental destruction of the records through fire or flood
  • Exceptional postal delays because of a strike by postal workers
  • Although the employers form P11D(b) has not been received by HMRC, the employer claims nevertheless to have posted it in good time
    • Unless there is evidence to the contrary, such a claim should be accepted on the first occasion that it is made, provided that a further form P11D(b) is then submitted promptly. In any subsequent year the employer should be required to substantiate such a claim by evidence of posting of some kind
  • Sudden disruption to a business or its records by a break in
  • Installation of a new computer system or program for the payroll which has hit unexpected teething problems
  • Although the employer’s form P11D(b) is a photocopy, it is a photocopy of an official P11D(b) form which bears a ‘wet signature’ (a signature in ink)

Please contact us if you have any problems completing the P11D forms or dealing with the filing requirements.