What Is a P11D and How Does It Work With Electric Car Salary Sacrifice?
A P11D is the annual form an employer sends to HMRC for every member of staff who receives taxable benefits or expenses on top of their salary. A company car is the classic example, which is why the P11D matters to anyone driving an EV through a salary sacrifice electric car scheme. This guide explains what the form is, how the P11D value of a car drives your Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) bill, what you do (and do not) need to declare on a tax return, and how The Electric Car Scheme handles the paperwork for employers.
What Is a P11D?
The P11D is a UK tax form. Employers complete one for each employee or director who received benefits in kind during the tax year (6 April to 5 April) and submit it to HMRC after the year ends. It lists each benefit and its "cash equivalent", the figure HMRC uses to work out how much extra tax the employee owes. HMRC's own P11D guidance confirms that employees can ask their employer for a record of what was reported and how much each benefit was worth.
The types of benefit that appear on a P11D include company cars and fuel, private medical insurance, interest-free or low-interest loans, living accommodation, and some travel and entertainment expenses. An electric car provided through a salary sacrifice scheme is reported in the company car section (Section F).
Alongside the individual P11Ds, the employer files a P11D(b). This summarises the total Class 1A National Insurance the business owes on all the benefits it has provided. Class 1A is charged at 15% for 2026/27 and is an employer cost, not an employee one.
P11D deadlines and penalties
According to HMRC's reporting deadlines, employers must submit P11D and P11D(b) forms to HMRC by 6 July following the end of the tax year and give each employee a copy of their P11D information by the same date. The Class 1A National Insurance shown on the P11D(b) must reach HMRC by 22 July (19 July if paying by cheque). For the 2026/27 tax year, which ends on 5 April 2027, that means P11Ds are due by 6 July 2027.
Missing the deadline is expensive. HMRC charges a penalty of £100 per 50 employees for each month or part month that a P11D(b) is late, and separate penalties apply where a return is careless or deliberately inaccurate and results in too little tax being paid.
Is there an alternative to filing P11Ds?
Yes. Employers who registered with HMRC before the start of a tax year can payroll most benefits, which means the tax on the benefit is collected through the employee's monthly pay rather than reported after the year end. Only two benefits cannot be payrolled: employer-provided living accommodation and beneficial loans. Employers who payroll a benefit do not need to include it on a P11D, although a P11D(b) is still required for Class 1A National Insurance.
This is about to stop being optional. HMRC has confirmed a phased move to mandatory payrolling, with company cars, car fuel, vans and medical benefits in the first phase from 6 April 2027 and all remaining benefits (except loans and accommodation) from April 2028. In practice, 2026/27 is the last tax year in which a company car benefit will routinely be reported on a P11D. From 2027/28 the BiK on your electric car will be collected through payroll in real time instead, and the annual form largely disappears for car benefits.
Understanding the P11D Value of a Car
The P11D value of a car is the figure used to calculate company car tax. It is the manufacturer's list price including VAT, delivery charges and any factory-fitted options, but excluding the first registration fee and the first year's Vehicle Excise Duty. It is not the price your employer or the leasing company actually paid, and it is not reduced by any discount negotiated on the lease.
The higher the P11D value, the higher the taxable benefit. That is why a £60,000 EV attracts more BiK than a £30,000 EV even though the percentage rate is identical, and one reason the best value electric cars tend to be the cheapest to run through a scheme as well. For a pure electric car the CO2 figure is zero, so the only variables that affect your BiK bill are the P11D value, the BiK rate for the tax year and your marginal rate of income tax. The Benefit-in-Kind guide covers the rates in detail.
The BiK calculation
The formula is simple: P11D value × BiK rate × your income tax rate = annual BiK tax.
Take an electric car with a P11D value of £45,000 in the 2026/27 tax year. At the 4% BiK rate the taxable benefit is £1,800. A basic-rate taxpayer pays 20% of that, or £360 a year (£30 a month). A higher-rate taxpayer pays 40%, or £720 a year (£60 a month). A petrol car with the same list price sitting in the top 37% band would produce a taxable benefit of £16,650 and cost a higher-rate taxpayer £6,660 a year. The gap between the two is the reason electric car salary sacrifice works.
The 4% rate applies for 2026/27. The government has committed BiK rates for electric cars to 2029/30, rising one percentage point a year to 5% in 2027/28, 7% in 2028/29 and 9% in 2029/30. Even at the end of that period, an EV will carry roughly a quarter of the BiK of a high-emission petrol or diesel car.
Why salary sacrifice does not change the calculation
A common worry is that HMRC taxes the salary you give up rather than the car. For most benefits provided under an "optional remuneration arrangement", HMRC does indeed use the higher of the salary sacrificed or the normal cash equivalent, as set out in its salary sacrifice guidance for employers. Cars with CO2 emissions of 75g/km or less are exempt from that rule, which covers every pure electric car. Your BiK is therefore based on the car's P11D value and the 4% rate, not on the salary you exchanged for it.
What the P11D Means for Electric Car Salary Sacrifice
When you take an electric car through a salary sacrifice scheme, two things happen on your payslip. Your gross salary falls by the monthly lease amount, so you pay less income tax and National Insurance on what remains. Then the car is treated as a benefit in kind, so a small amount of BiK tax is added back. Because the BiK rate is only 4% for 2026/27, the tax you save on the sacrificed salary far outweighs the BiK you pay, which is how employees save 20-50% compared with leasing the same car from take-home pay. The employee tax savings guide walks through the arithmetic for each tax band.
The table below shows how the two routes differ in tax treatment and reporting.
| Feature | Normal salary | Electric car via salary sacrifice |
|---|---|---|
| Tax method | Taxed in full through PAYE (income tax + NI) | Sacrificed salary not taxed; car taxed as a benefit in kind at 4% (2026/27) |
| P11D reporting | Not reported | Car reported on P11D, Section F (until payrolling becomes mandatory from April 2027) |
| Calculation base | Full gross salary | P11D value of the car |
| Employer National Insurance | 15% Class 1 on full salary | 15% Class 1A on the BiK value only |
| Tax efficiency | No saving | 20-50% saving depending on tax band |
15% employer National Insurance on it. Its only NI cost is Class 1A on the 4% BiK value, which is a fraction of the saving. That is why a well-run company electric car scheme is cost-neutral or better for the employer.
Understanding Your P60 With Salary Sacrifice
Your P60 and your P11D do different jobs, and it helps to know which figure lives where. HMRC describes the P60 as the record of the tax you have paid on your salary in the tax year, and your employer must give it to you by 31 May if you were still employed on 5 April.
With a salary sacrifice scheme in place, the P60 shows your pay after the sacrifice, because that is the amount that was subject to tax. It also shows the income tax and National Insurance actually deducted from that reduced pay, plus any employee pension contributions. What the P60 does not show is your original contractual salary before the sacrifice, the value of the car you received in exchange, or any employer contributions made on your behalf.
The P11D fills that gap. It reports the car as a benefit and states its cash equivalent, which for a pure EV is 4% of the P11D value in 2026/27. So if you ever need to reconcile the two documents: the P60 tells you what you were paid and taxed on, the P11D tells you what you received instead of pay. Neither document needs adjusting, and you should never add the sacrificed salary back to the P60 figure.
Do I Need to Declare My Salary Sacrifice Car on My Tax Return?
No. If your employer's scheme is an HMRC-approved salary sacrifice scheme, there is nothing additional to declare on a Self Assessment return. Salary sacrifice is a contractual change to your pay that your employer processes through PAYE, so the reduced salary and the car benefit are already reflected in HMRC's records before you ever look at a tax return. HMRC's Employment Income Manual at EIM42752 describes salary sacrifice as commonly used "to take advantage of the exemption from tax or NIC or both of certain benefits", and treats the sacrifice itself as a matter of employment contract rather than something the employee reports.
Most employees on an electric car salary sacrifice scheme do not complete a Self Assessment return at all. If you do complete one for other reasons, such as rental income or the High Income Child Benefit Charge, use the figures exactly as they appear on your P60 for the employment income section, and enter the car benefit exactly as it appears on your P11D in the benefits section. Do not add back the sacrificed salary, and do not attempt to claim relief for it. HMRC's guide to who must send a tax return sets out the situations that trigger a return; a salary sacrifice car on its own is not one of them.
Does salary sacrifice change my tax code?
Your tax code does not change because of the salary sacrifice itself. Your taxable income falls, so the tax deducted falls with it, but the code that determines your personal allowance stays the same. What can change your tax code is the car benefit. Where a benefit is reported on a P11D rather than payrolled, HMRC usually collects the BiK tax by reducing your personal allowance in the following tax year. From April 2027, once company cars must be payrolled, the BiK will be deducted month by month instead and this adjustment falls away.
Are there penalties for not declaring salary sacrifice?
There are no penalties for not declaring an approved salary sacrifice scheme, because there is nothing to declare. Penalties arise only if you provide incorrect information about your employment income, try to claim additional relief you are not entitled to, or take part in a non-approved scheme without reporting it. For a mainstream scheme run by an established provider, the position is "nothing to declare" rather than "must declare".
What about non-approved schemes?
The exception is a scheme that HMRC does not accept as a genuine salary sacrifice. These tend to involve artificial structures or benefits that do not qualify for the normal exemptions, and they may require separate declaration. Pension contributions, cycle-to-work and electric car schemes are all mainstream, and The Electric Car Scheme operates entirely within HMRC's rules. If you are ever unsure whether an employer's scheme is compliant, ask the HR or payroll team before assuming anything needs to go on a return.
How P11Ds Work With The Electric Car Scheme
Once a business joins The Electric Car Scheme, we provide draft, pre-filled P11D information for every employee with a car on the scheme each year, ready for the employer to check and submit before the 6 July deadline. The data includes the car's P11D value, the applicable BiK percentage and the cash equivalent for both the employee's P11D and the company's P11D(b), so payroll teams are not calculating anything from scratch or hunting for list prices.
This sits alongside the rest of the employer package: no set-up cost, Complete Employer Protection from day one covering resignation, redundancy, long-term sickness and parental leave with no exclusion period, and pricing drawn from multiple UK funders rather than a single lender. Employees can choose from new EVs or used electric cars delivered in around 14 days, and every price includes maintenance and breakdown cover. Employers with a large workforce, including Holland & Barrett and Leeds Bradford Airport, run the scheme with the P11D administration handled for them. For a side-by-side view of how providers differ on protection, pricing and admin, see the EV salary sacrifice comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions About P11D Forms and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice
When will I receive my P11D form from my employer?
Your employer must give you your P11D information by 6 July following the end of the tax year. For 2026/27, which ends on 5 April 2027, expect it by 6 July 2027. If your car is through The Electric Car Scheme, your employer already has the pre-filled figures, so delays are unusual. If nothing has arrived by mid-July, ask your payroll or HR team for a copy.
What happens if my employer doesn't give me a P11D or submits it late?
The penalties fall on the employer, not you: £100 per 50 employees for each month a P11D(b) is late, plus further penalties for inaccurate returns. As an employee your only exposure is if you complete a Self Assessment return and omit a benefit that should have been included, so chase your employer first and, if that fails, contact HMRC on 0300 200 3300.
Do I need to do anything with my P11D once I receive it?
Usually not. HMRC uses the figures to adjust your tax code and collects the BiK through PAYE. Check that the car model, P11D value and BiK percentage are correct; for a pure EV the rate should be 4% in 2026/27. If you file a Self Assessment return, copy the benefit figure into the employment benefits section exactly as shown.
What should I do if the information on my P11D is incorrect?
Contact your employer's payroll or HR team straight away. They will need to submit an amended P11D to HMRC and give you a corrected copy. The most common errors are a wrong P11D value, a wrong CO2 figure (an issue for plug-in hybrids rather than pure EVs) or an out-of-date BiK percentage. The Electric Car Scheme provides the correct figures to employers each year, which keeps these errors rare.
Do I need to declare my salary sacrifice car on my tax return?
No. An approved salary sacrifice scheme is processed through PAYE and the car is reported by your employer on the P11D, so there is nothing further for you to declare. If you complete a Self Assessment return for other reasons, use the P60 and P11D figures exactly as they appear.
I'm self-employed. Can I use salary sacrifice?
No. Salary sacrifice requires an employment contract and a PAYE payroll, neither of which applies to a sole trader. Self-employed drivers instead claim the cost of an electric car through capital allowances and business running costs on their Self Assessment return, which is a different regime altogether. Company directors who pay themselves a salary through PAYE can, however, use a salary sacrifice scheme.
Can I claim tax relief on my salary sacrifice car?
Not on the sacrifice itself. The saving is already built in because your salary is reduced before tax and National Insurance are calculated; claiming again would be double relief, which HMRC does not permit. This is different from personal pension contributions or Gift Aid, where a higher-rate taxpayer claims the extra relief through a return. The one related claim you may be able to make is for business mileage: if you charge the car yourself and drive for work, your employer can reimburse you at HMRC's advisory electricity rate, which from 1 September 2026 is 7p per mile for home charging and 15p per mile for public charging. Through The Charge Scheme you can also salary sacrifice your charging costs and save 20-50% on home, workplace and public charging.
Will a salary sacrifice car affect my pension?
It can, because your pensionable salary may fall in line with your post-sacrifice pay, depending on how your employer's pension scheme defines pensionable earnings. The effect is usually small relative to the car saving, but it is worth understanding before you sign. Read how electric car salary sacrifice affects your pension for the detail.
How does salary sacrifice affect my P11D compared with a traditional company car?
The P11D entry looks the same: the car, its P11D value and its BiK percentage. The difference is what happens to your salary. With a traditional company car your gross pay is unchanged and you simply pay BiK on top. With salary sacrifice your gross pay falls by the lease cost, so you save income tax and National Insurance on that amount and pay BiK at 4% (2026/27) on the car. The combination is what produces the 20-50% saving that a conventional company car or a personal lease cannot match, and the salary sacrifice company car guide sets out the two routes side by side.
The Bottom Line
A P11D is the form your employer uses to tell HMRC about your electric car, and for 2026/27 it is the last year the form will routinely carry a company car before payrolling becomes mandatory in April 2027. Your BiK bill is P11D value × 4% × your tax rate, your P60 shows your post-sacrifice pay, and there is nothing extra to declare on a tax return. The Electric Car Scheme prepares the P11D figures for employers every year, so the administration falls to us rather than your payroll team.
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Last updated: 18/09/2026
Our pricing is based on data collected from The Electric Car Scheme quote tool. All final pricing is inclusive of VAT. All prices above are based on the following lease terms; 10,000 miles pa, 36 months, and are inclusive of Maintenance and Breakdown Cover. The Electric Car Scheme’s terms and conditions apply. All deals are subject to credit approval and availability. All deals are subject to excess mileage and damage charges. Prices are calculated based on the following tax saving assumptions; England & Wales, 40% tax rate. The above prices were calculated using a flat payment profile. The Electric Car Scheme Limited provides services for the administration of your salary sacrifice employee benefits. The Electric Car Scheme Holdings Limited is a member of the BVRLA (10608), is authorised and regulated by the FCA under FRN 968270, is an Appointed Representative of Marshall Management Services Ltd under FRN 667174, and is a credit broker and not a lender or insurance provider.
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