Do you provide a company car to your employees or directors? If you do, you’ll need to fill out a P46 Car form to let HMRC know.
The good news is filling this form in only has to be done once, or until something changes like upgrading a vehicle, a new employee starting, or deciding to stop providing a company car altogether. So it’s worth thinking about if there have been any changes to you company car scheme every quarter (see the specific deadlines for each quarter below). Filling in the P46 car form lets HMRC know that they need to adjust individuals’ tax code, and you must do this no later than 1 month after the end of that particular quarter.
P46 car form submissions deadlines for each quarter
- Q1: 6 Apr-5 Jul = Deadline 2 Aug
- Q2: 6 Jul-5 Oct = Deadline 2 Nov
- Q3: 6 Oct-5 Jan = Deadline 2 Feb
- Q4: 6 Jan-5 Apr = Deadline 5 Apr (electronic form) or 3 May (printed form)
How do I know if I need to submit a P46 car form?
Picture the scene … You’re a company director and on the 20th May, you finally bit the bullet and bought a £60k Tesla as your company car after seeing their amazing 0% finance offer. You’ve never had a company car before, so now you must submit a P46 Car form before the 2 August deadline (that quarter’s deadline). You search on your computer for ‘HMRC P46 Car Form’, read through the instructions and fill out the form. Once submitted, you can relax and enjoy not having to do it again until something changes.
When do I not need to fill in the form?
You do not need to tell HMRC if you provide the following …
- ‘Pool’ cars, which are used by more than one employee for business purposes and are normally kept on business 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
Next steps
Search online for ‘HMRC P46 Car form’ or visit gov.uk/tell-hmrc-company-car
We’re always on hand to help so get in touch if you’d like to talk through any company car related issues.
