Under payrolling, employers deal with taxable benefits provided to employees through the payroll, treating the taxable amount of the benefit like additional salary and deducting the associated tax from the employee’s cash pay. Where a benefit is payrolled, the employer does not need to report it to HMRC via the P11D process after the end of the year. However, the benefit must still be taken into account in calculating the employer’s Class 1A National Insurance liability on their P11D(b).
Currently, payrolling is voluntary and employers who wish to payroll must register to do so before the start of the tax year from which they wish to commence payrolling – it is not possible to join in-year. However, this is to change as from 6 April 2026 payrolling will become mandatory for all but a couple of taxable benefits. At the time of the Autumn 2024 Budget, the Government confirmed that mandatory payrolling will go ahead as planned, and provided more details as to what it will look like.
Excluded benefits
Mandatory payrolling will apply to all taxable benefits in kind with the exception of employment-related loans and employer-provided living accommodation. Currently, it is not possible to payroll these benefits, but voluntarily payrolling will be introduced for both of them from April 2026, meaning that employers providing these benefits can choose either to payroll them voluntarily or report them to HMRC after the end of the tax year via the P11D process. For 2026/27 and later tax years, it will no longer be possible to report other benefits on a P11D. Employment-related loans and living accommodation will be brought within mandatory payrolling from a later date.
Taxable amount
To find out the amount to include in the payroll in respect of the payrolled benefit, employers will need to calculate the cash equivalent of the benefit and divide it by the number of pay periods in the tax year. Where an employee is paid monthly, 1/12th of the cash equivalent of the benefit will be taxed through the payroll each month.
If the cash equivalent value changes during the year, as would be the case, for example, if an employee changed their company car, the employer would need to recalculate the cash equivalent value and revise the payrolled amount accordingly for the remainder of the tax year.
End of year process
Employers will be expected to ensure that the amounts that are reported for taxable benefits in kind are as accurate as possible. Corrections should be made as soon as possible if the value changes in-year. However, an end of year process is to be introduced to provide for amendments to the taxable value of benefits that cannot be determined in-year. Details of this are not yet available and will be provided in due course.
Reporting requirements
Following the move to mandatory payrolling, employers will need to provide more information than they currently need to do so under the voluntary system. From April 2026, Class 1A National Insurance contributions on benefits in kind will also be collected through the payroll, rather than after the end of the year as now, and the reporting requirements will be increased to facilitate this and also to provide a more granular breakdown of payrolled benefits in kind.
