What if the P11D is wrong?

By Tolley in association with Vince Ashall

The following Employment Tax guidance note by Tolley in association with Vince Ashall provides comprehensive and up to date tax information covering:

What if the P11D is wrong?
Error discovered before submission
Error discovered after submission
Common errors
P11D(b)
Penalties
Interest on late payments

As with most activities, mistakes can happen. The more complex the affairs are, the more likely it is that mistakes will occur. Calculating the value of benefits to be reported on P11D s is far from being a simple exercise. This guidance note will help you if an error is discovered.

Whilst there is advice on the GOV.UK website, this note will provide you with more in-depth information which also reflects HMRC’s own push towards electronic filing and its ‘electronic by default’ position.

The action to be taken when an error is discovered depends on the timing of the discovery in relation to the forms, ie whether or not they have been submitted to HMRC.

Error discovered before submission

The advice regarding correcting errors on forms on the GOV.UK website, where the error is discovered before the submission of form P11D, are:

•a line should be drawn through the incorrect entry, but ensure that the incorrect entry can still be read
•enter the correct value alongside the old one

The reason for doing this is that the incorrect entry may be seen by HMRC as an indicator for a compliance visit (see PAYE57335).

The forms are not ‘controlled’ documents or sequentially numbered requiring missing forms to be accounted for. A more logical handling of the situation would be to complete a new form. The electronic form would override this, however, as a new form would be submitted each time.

With regard to paper forms, the number of entries on the form should be borne in mind. It may be easier, on a form with a multitude of entries, to draw a line through the incorrect entry and write in the correct value, on the basis that to re-write the