A P11D is the form your company uses to report the taxable benefits in kind it gives a director or employee — a company car, private medical insurance, an interest-free or low-interest loan over £10,000, and similar perks — after the tax year ends. For 2026/27 you submit the P11D and the P11D(b) by 6 July, hand the director their copy by the same date, and pay Class 1A National Insurance, charged at 15%, by 22 July (19 July if you pay by cheque). The director pays income tax on the benefit at their own rate; the company pays the Class 1A. Trivial benefits — up to £50 each, capped at £300 a year for a close-company director — are not reported on a P11D. And despite the talk of payrolling, HMRC has confirmed a P11D is still required for 2026/27. Here is what counts, what it costs, and when it falls due.
Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year and sourced to gov.uk; deadlines and rates change at each Budget. General guidance, not personal advice.
What is a benefit in kind, and what goes on a P11D?
A benefit in kind is something of value your company gives you as a director (or an employee) on top of your salary that HMRC treats as taxable. It is a reward you receive without paying for it yourself, so tax is due on its value. The classic director examples are a company car, private medical insurance, and a director's loan of more than £10,000 that is interest-free or charged below HMRC's official rate (gov.uk).
Not everything the company pays for is a benefit in kind. Genuine business costs it reimburses are usually allowable expenses rather than reportable benefits, and your salary and dividends are taxed in their own way, not on a P11D. Trivial benefits — small perks costing £50 or less each, capped at £300 a year for a director of a close company — are specifically excluded and must never go on a P11D (gov.uk). One caveat many first-time directors miss: a director's loan that stays above £10,000 across the year is a reportable benefit in its own right.
Not sure whether a perk you give yourself is a reportable benefit or an allowable expense? Our free guide sets out the director basics in plain English.
The reporting all happens after the tax year ends on 5 April, and the dates are fixed rather than tied to your company's own year-end. You submit the P11D (one per director or employee with benefits) and the P11D(b) (which totals the employer Class 1A National Insurance) to HMRC by 6 July, and you must give each person their P11D copy by the same date. You then pay the Class 1A a little later (gov.uk).
For the 2026/27 tax year those dates land like this:
What you do
Deadline for 2026/27
Submit P11D and P11D(b) to HMRC
6 July 2027
Give each director/employee their P11D copy
6 July 2027
Pay Class 1A National Insurance (15%)
22 July 2027
Pay Class 1A if paying by cheque
19 July 2027
Miss these and HMRC can charge late-filing and late-payment penalties, which build the longer things slip — reason enough to route the filing to an accountant well before July rather than the week of the deadline. A partner can confirm the exact figures for your circumstances.
How much do benefits in kind actually cost?
A benefit in kind is taxed twice over — once on you and once on the company — so it is worth knowing the two halves before you take one. You pay income tax on the benefit's taxable value at your own rate (20%, 40% or 45% in the rest of the UK; Scottish rates differ). The company pays employer Class 1A National Insurance at 15% on the same value (gov.uk).
To put rough numbers on it: on a benefit with a taxable value of £1,000, a higher-rate director would pay £400 in income tax for the year, and the company would pay £150 in Class 1A — around £550 in total on a £1,000 perk. (Illustrative, 2026/27; your actual value depends on the benefit.) A company car or medical cover can carry a far larger taxable value than a small perk, which is why the yearly cost of some director benefits surprises people.
None of this means a benefit is a bad idea — it is legitimate reward, and some benefits (an electric company car, for instance) are taxed lightly. It just means the P11D value feeds straight into how much tax you and the company pay, alongside how you pay yourself in salary and dividends.
Worked out you have a company car or a director's loan to report before 6 July? We can match you with a partner accountant who handles the P11D and the Class 1A for you.
What is changing — payrolling benefits from April 2027
You may have read that P11Ds are being scrapped in favour of "payrolling" benefits — reporting them through payroll in real time instead of on a form after the year. That change is real, but it has moved. HMRC has delayed making payrolling mandatory to 6 April 2027 (it was first set for April 2026), and it will be phased in (gov.uk).
From April 2027, phase one covers company cars, car fuel, vans, van fuel and employer-provided medical treatment or insurance; most remaining benefits follow around April 2028. The plain-English upshot for a director now: a P11D is still required for 2026/27, so you file it in the usual way by 6 July, while getting your payroll ready for the switch. Anyone telling you the P11D is already gone for this year has the timing wrong.
You can choose to payroll some benefits voluntarily before the rules bite, which removes the P11D for those benefits (the P11D(b) for Class 1A still applies). Whether that is worth doing early is a judgement call for your accountant, based on which benefits you provide and how your payroll is set up.
What this means for directors
The P11D catches directors out most on the two benefits they forget are reportable — the company car and the director's loan over £10,000 — usually right when the 6 July deadline is already on top of them. It is a short form, but the figures behind it (car values, loan balances, medical premiums) take time to gather correctly, and the Class 1A bill is real money. Get the benefits logged through the year and the July filing is straightforward. Go Limited will connect you with a partner accountant who prepares the P11D, works out the Class 1A, and keeps you ready for payrolling — see our accountancy partner network.
Payrolling is coming, but for 2026/27 the P11D still decides what you and your company pay on every benefit you take. Know what counts before July, not after it.
What is a P11D?
A P11D is the HMRC form a company files after the tax year to report the taxable benefits in kind it gave a director or employee — things like a company car, private medical insurance or a low-interest loan. A separate P11D(b) reports the employer's total Class 1A National Insurance. For 2026/27 both are due by 6 July.
What is a benefit in kind?
A benefit in kind is something of value your company gives you on top of your salary that HMRC treats as taxable — a company car, medical cover, or an interest-free loan over £10,000, for example. You pay income tax on its value at your own rate, and the company pays Class 1A National Insurance at 15%.
When is the P11D deadline?
You must submit the P11D and P11D(b) to HMRC, and give each director or employee their copy, by 6 July after the tax year ends. The Class 1A National Insurance is then paid by 22 July, or by 19 July if you pay by cheque. For 2026/27 those dates fall in July 2027.
Do I need to file a P11D if I have no benefits?
No. If your company provided no taxable benefits in kind and reimbursed no reportable expenses in the year, there is no P11D to file. It is worth checking, though — a director's loan sitting above £10,000, or medical cover paid by the company, counts even if you did not think of it as a "benefit". If unsure, ask an accountant before the deadline.
What benefits are not reported on a P11D?
Trivial benefits — small perks of £50 or less each, capped at £300 a year for a director of a close company — are excluded and must not go on a P11D. Genuine business expenses and your salary and dividends are also outside it. And from April 2027, benefits you payroll are reported through payroll instead.
A P11D is the form your company uses to report the taxable benefits in kind it gives a director or employee — a company car, private medical insurance, an interest-free or low-interest loan over £10,000, and similar perks — after the tax year ends. For 2026/27 you submit the P11D and the P11D(b) by 6 July, hand the director their copy by the same date, and pay Class 1A National Insurance, charged at 15%, by 22 July (19 July if you pay by cheque). The director pays income tax on the benefit at their own rate; the company pays the Class 1A. Trivial benefits — up to £50 each, capped at £300 a year for a close-company director — are not reported on a P11D. And despite the talk of payrolling, HMRC has confirmed a P11D is still required for 2026/27. Here is what counts, what it costs, and when it falls due.
Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year and sourced to gov.uk; deadlines and rates change at each Budget. General guidance, not personal advice.
What is a benefit in kind, and what goes on a P11D?
A benefit in kind is something of value your company gives you as a director (or an employee) on top of your salary that HMRC treats as taxable. It is a reward you receive without paying for it yourself, so tax is due on its value. The classic director examples are a company car, private medical insurance, and a director's loan of more than £10,000 that is interest-free or charged below HMRC's official rate (gov.uk).
Not everything the company pays for is a benefit in kind. Genuine business costs it reimburses are usually allowable expenses rather than reportable benefits, and your salary and dividends are taxed in their own way, not on a P11D. Trivial benefits — small perks costing £50 or less each, capped at £300 a year for a director of a close company — are specifically excluded and must never go on a P11D (gov.uk). One caveat many first-time directors miss: a director's loan that stays above £10,000 across the year is a reportable benefit in its own right.
Not sure whether a perk you give yourself is a reportable benefit or an allowable expense? Our free guide sets out the director basics in plain English.
The reporting all happens after the tax year ends on 5 April, and the dates are fixed rather than tied to your company's own year-end. You submit the P11D (one per director or employee with benefits) and the P11D(b) (which totals the employer Class 1A National Insurance) to HMRC by 6 July, and you must give each person their P11D copy by the same date. You then pay the Class 1A a little later (gov.uk).
For the 2026/27 tax year those dates land like this:
What you do
Deadline for 2026/27
Submit P11D and P11D(b) to HMRC
6 July 2027
Give each director/employee their P11D copy
6 July 2027
Pay Class 1A National Insurance (15%)
22 July 2027
Pay Class 1A if paying by cheque
19 July 2027
Miss these and HMRC can charge late-filing and late-payment penalties, which build the longer things slip — reason enough to route the filing to an accountant well before July rather than the week of the deadline. A partner can confirm the exact figures for your circumstances.
How much do benefits in kind actually cost?
A benefit in kind is taxed twice over — once on you and once on the company — so it is worth knowing the two halves before you take one. You pay income tax on the benefit's taxable value at your own rate (20%, 40% or 45% in the rest of the UK; Scottish rates differ). The company pays employer Class 1A National Insurance at 15% on the same value (gov.uk).
To put rough numbers on it: on a benefit with a taxable value of £1,000, a higher-rate director would pay £400 in income tax for the year, and the company would pay £150 in Class 1A — around £550 in total on a £1,000 perk. (Illustrative, 2026/27; your actual value depends on the benefit.) A company car or medical cover can carry a far larger taxable value than a small perk, which is why the yearly cost of some director benefits surprises people.
None of this means a benefit is a bad idea — it is legitimate reward, and some benefits (an electric company car, for instance) are taxed lightly. It just means the P11D value feeds straight into how much tax you and the company pay, alongside how you pay yourself in salary and dividends.
Worked out you have a company car or a director's loan to report before 6 July? We can match you with a partner accountant who handles the P11D and the Class 1A for you.
What is changing — payrolling benefits from April 2027
You may have read that P11Ds are being scrapped in favour of "payrolling" benefits — reporting them through payroll in real time instead of on a form after the year. That change is real, but it has moved. HMRC has delayed making payrolling mandatory to 6 April 2027 (it was first set for April 2026), and it will be phased in (gov.uk).
From April 2027, phase one covers company cars, car fuel, vans, van fuel and employer-provided medical treatment or insurance; most remaining benefits follow around April 2028. The plain-English upshot for a director now: a P11D is still required for 2026/27, so you file it in the usual way by 6 July, while getting your payroll ready for the switch. Anyone telling you the P11D is already gone for this year has the timing wrong.
You can choose to payroll some benefits voluntarily before the rules bite, which removes the P11D for those benefits (the P11D(b) for Class 1A still applies). Whether that is worth doing early is a judgement call for your accountant, based on which benefits you provide and how your payroll is set up.
What this means for directors
The P11D catches directors out most on the two benefits they forget are reportable — the company car and the director's loan over £10,000 — usually right when the 6 July deadline is already on top of them. It is a short form, but the figures behind it (car values, loan balances, medical premiums) take time to gather correctly, and the Class 1A bill is real money. Get the benefits logged through the year and the July filing is straightforward. Go Limited will connect you with a partner accountant who prepares the P11D, works out the Class 1A, and keeps you ready for payrolling — see our accountancy partner network.
Payrolling is coming, but for 2026/27 the P11D still decides what you and your company pay on every benefit you take. Know what counts before July, not after it.
What is a P11D?
A P11D is the HMRC form a company files after the tax year to report the taxable benefits in kind it gave a director or employee — things like a company car, private medical insurance or a low-interest loan. A separate P11D(b) reports the employer's total Class 1A National Insurance. For 2026/27 both are due by 6 July.
What is a benefit in kind?
A benefit in kind is something of value your company gives you on top of your salary that HMRC treats as taxable — a company car, medical cover, or an interest-free loan over £10,000, for example. You pay income tax on its value at your own rate, and the company pays Class 1A National Insurance at 15%.
When is the P11D deadline?
You must submit the P11D and P11D(b) to HMRC, and give each director or employee their copy, by 6 July after the tax year ends. The Class 1A National Insurance is then paid by 22 July, or by 19 July if you pay by cheque. For 2026/27 those dates fall in July 2027.
Do I need to file a P11D if I have no benefits?
No. If your company provided no taxable benefits in kind and reimbursed no reportable expenses in the year, there is no P11D to file. It is worth checking, though — a director's loan sitting above £10,000, or medical cover paid by the company, counts even if you did not think of it as a "benefit". If unsure, ask an accountant before the deadline.
What benefits are not reported on a P11D?
Trivial benefits — small perks of £50 or less each, capped at £300 a year for a director of a close company — are excluded and must not go on a P11D. Genuine business expenses and your salary and dividends are also outside it. And from April 2027, benefits you payroll are reported through payroll instead.
