DO you know how many private miles your employees are driving in their company vehicles?
You should, and you should also make sure you tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if your company vehicles are available for private use by directors or employees?
Private use includes employees’ journeys between home and work, unless they’re travelling to a temporary place of work.
Employees can use the HMRC website to check or update their company car tax
What to report
You need to send a P46 (Car) form to HMRC if you:
- Provide company cars to your employees
- Stop providing a company car
- Provide someone with an additional car
To send the form you can:
- Fill it in online and send a printed copy to the address on the form
- Use HMRC’s PAYE Online service for employers
- Use your payroll software
- You also need to report on your end-of-year forms and pay Class 1A National Insurance on the value of the car benefit.
Replacing a company car
You need to tell HMRC if you’ve replaced a company car. You can do this by using:
- HMRC’s PAYE Online service for employers
- Your payroll software
- Your end of year forms
Deadlines
There are different deadlines depending on when you provide, change or stop providing the company car.
| When the change takes place | When you need to tell HMRC by |
|---|---|
| 6 January to 5 April | 5 April (electronic form) |
| 6 January to 5 April | 3 May (printed form) |
| 6 April to 5 July | 2 August |
| 6 July to 5 October | 2 November |
| 6 October to 5 January | 2 February |
Exceptions
You do not need to tell HMRC if you provide:
- Pool cars, which are used by more than one employee for business purposes, and normally kept on your premises
- Cars adapted for use by employees with a disability, if the only private use is for journeys between home and work
- Emergency vehicles used only by on-call employees of the police, fire and rescue, ambulance or paramedic services
