P11D forms explained: your complete guide for 2025-26

A P11D is a document businesses can use to tell HMRC about any perks or expenses they’ve provided to directors or employees throughout the tax year.

In other words, it’s all the extras your team gets, like personal medical plans, gym memberships, company cars, season rail tickets, and so on.

The core purpose of a P11D form is to account for all taxable benefits each individual receives (which should be reflected on any self-assessment tax return). It’s a little tricky to fill out, so we’ll guide you through the details here.

What is a P11D form?

For each employee who received ‘perks’ or got expenses covered by your business in the period, you’ll have to fill out a P11D. This list doesn’t have to be exhaustive, though there are a lot of items that you must include.

What are the employer's responsibilities for P11D reporting?

As an employer, it comes down to you to complete these P11D documents. In other words, it’s not your staff’s responsibility but yours, in order to ensure the fiscal authority has been told about all the perks you give your workers.

Simply put: 

• Some of the items you’ll list can impact your company’s National Insurance Contributions (NIC).

• In addition to this, the taxable benefits or expenses you add for each person could change their applicable fiscal coding.

As we touched on briefly, the rules surrounding P11Ds can get a little confusing (and can, sometimes, change). So it’s important to keep very good records, and to stay on top of compliance. 

What is the difference between a P11D, a P45 and a P60? 

Whereas a P60 outlines the amount of tax a staff member has paid on their salary, a P11D focuses on what the employer has to pay for providing perks. Both of these documents are annual, whereas a P45 is only given to a staff member when their employment ends.

Is there an alternative to filling P11Ds?

More recently, payrolling benefits have been gaining popularity as a faster alternative to P11Ds. If you want to switch to this scheme, you’ll have to register for it with HMRC.

Not ready to register? You can still choose to report via P11D, and we’ll go over how to do so in this post.  

When is the P11D deadline?

The submission deadline is always the 6th of July for the previous fiscal year. Any Class 1A NICs you then owe must be paid a couple of weeks later, by the 22nd of July.

A handy resource for businesses

Get your copy

Are there penalties for late P11D submissions? 

Yes. If your P11D(b) filing (we’ll explain more about this later) is tardy, then you’ll incur a penalty of £100.00 per 50 workers for every month outstanding. There are also charges and interest if you’re late making your payment of Class 1A NICs.

There’s also potential for further charges for consistently late submissions or incorrect data.

What goes on a P11D form? 

It’s simple — any type of perk or expense your company is paying for that is taxable should go on a P11D. It’s important to note there are some exceptions to this — including certain items and services, which may have already been payrolled. Some of the most common items to list are: 

• Company car expenses that staff can claim, such as mileage allowances or fuel

• Private car running costs

• Private medical cover

• Home or accommodation expenses

• Gym memberships and other subscription services

• Mobile phone subscription plans

• Childcare vouchers

Still unsure which items go on a P11D? The UK government website provides a complete list of all expenses you should include. 

What doesn’t go on a P11D form? 

As mentioned just now, there are certain perks and expenses that are exempt from P11Ds. 

Round sum allowances, for instance, which have been paid via payrolling, are to be excluded. For example, let’s say that, as an employer, you provide a travel allowance of £50.00 per month for employees who don’t have a company car. The allowance is classed as earnings and is paid in normal gross payments so that the necessary are calculated through your employee payment system. Therefore, there’s nothing else to pay or report on a P11D.

Perks and expenses that are tax-free or exempt from NI, such as business travel or uniforms, are also an exception, as well as any expense you include in a PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA).

Mandatory payrolling of benefits: what’s changing? 

Important changes are coming to the way perks are reported in the UK. While P11Ds are still required for the 2026 period, it’s been announced that mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind (BiK) will be introduced from April 2027 for every limited company. This means that most businesses will have to transition from the traditional P11D reporting system to reporting benefits through their payroll software. We recently hosted a webinar on this exact subject, with our experts providing guidance for businesses on how to handle everything. Rewatch our Power Hour: P11D Breakdown Session.

What is a P11D(b) form?

Sounds similar to a P11D, apart from the (b), right? That’s O.K. — you’d be forgiven for mixing these two up.

A P11D(b) acts as a summary statement of all perks (both reported on P11Ds and payrolled) that you’ve offered as a company for that period. To the tax authorities, it’s a declaration that these are all the perks your business has offered and that you haven’t knowingly left any items out. 

A P11D(b) also specifies how much Class 1A National Insurance you have to pay in total for everything offered. You’ll have to file a P11D(b) if: 

• You’ve already submitted P11Ds

• You are asked to file a P11D(b) by HMRC

• You paid for staff perks and expenses through their payslips

That last bit about perks and expenses paid through payslips is important. Some businesses believe that as long as perks are payrolled, they don’t have to file a P11D(b). But this is a common misconception. Whether you report them through P11Ds or process them via payrolling, they must be included on your P11D(b). Without a P11D(b), your Class 1A NIC won’t be able to be calculated.

How do I file a P11D form? 

Filing a P11D form is pretty straightforward, though it can be time-consuming, depending on how many people you have to file for.

As paper submissions are no longer accepted, the only way to file P11Ds is online. You can choose to do this directly via the government service, or via payrolling or dedicated P11D software. 

Using payroll software can help speed up this process, as you can often bulk-upload benefits, like you can with PayFit. 

How do you fill out a P11D correctly? 

Submitting P11Ds can be a highly manual and time-consuming process, which means it can quickly become overwhelming without proper planning. With so many other things happening for businesses in spring, it can be easy to relegate this task to the very last minute.

However, with a bit of foresight and proper planning, you can manage your P11D submissions a lot more smoothly.

Here are four steps for a smoother submission process.

Key deadlines for 2026

• 6 July 2026: deadline for submitting P11Ds and P11D(b)s 

• 6 July 2026: deadline for providing P11D copies to employees

• 22 July 2026: deadline for paying Class 1A NICs electronically

• 19 July 2026: deadline for paying Class 1A NICs by cheque

Three steps for smoother P11D submissions 

Step 1: Gather your data

Before even starting your submissions, gather all the necessary data. Start by listing out all the perks you give to staff, whether one-offs, or on a regular basis. 

For each perk, you must determine its annual value. In other words, you’ll have to determine how much a specific item costs in total for that tax period. 

Most benefit providers can provide this data. For instance, if you provide personal health cover with Vitality, you can ask them for a breakdown of premiums. Make sure this details the total expense to the business, and any contributions made by the staff member.

Step 2: Review benefits received by leavers

It can be easy to forget about leavers. Think about it: if someone left the company months ago, they might not readily come to mind right before the deadline. But if you don’t include benefits information for leavers, then you might not produce the right number of P11Ds, leaving you open to fines or penalties for late filing of accounts.

Step 3: Complete your submissions, and double, then triple check everything!

Once you’ve gathered all your data, including that for leavers, you’re ready to work on your P11Ds. HMRC won’t accept multiple submissions, so you’ll have to file them all in one go.

It can be tricky to correct a P11D once it’s submitted. So it’s worth checking everything you include as thoroughly as possible. If you don’t use software that automates calculations for you (which is, by the way, a smart idea!), then this is especially important. 

Finally, here are a few recent changes from HMRC to keep in mind

• PAYE Portal — If you’re an organisation with less than 500 employees, you can now file P11Ds through the PAYE Portal. As mentioned previously, HMRC no longer accepts paper submissions, so the only options are to file via the digital portal or by using commercial payroll software.

• Online PSA — As of the new tax year, HMRC allows employers to set up, change or cancel a PAYE Settlement Agreement online. Instead of waiting months to see if a PSA was agreed upon, you can now check the status of applications via the web. To learn how to craft a PAYE settlement agreement, check out PayFit’s template.

Let PayFit handle your P11D submissions 

As one of the trickier aspects of payroll, P11Ds can create a lot of work and admin for your team. But with PayFit, that can all go away! 

PayFit automates P11D submissions so you don’t have to waste time filling them out one by one. But you can also sign up for our higher level package: 

1. Share your benefits data, and we’ll do all the formatting and uploading for you! 

2. We’ll take care of all the ‘back-and-forth’ with HMRC over changes and corrections

3. We’ll also provide an expert eye to look over all your submissions, and ensure these are correct.

Sign up for a demo, and one of our dedicated product specialists can walk you through this.

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