Sage 50 P11D

Sage 50 P11D does one job. It records the taxable benefits and expenses you provide to employees, calculates the Class 1A National Insurance due, and files the P11D and P11D(b) returns with HMRC online. If you provide company cars, private medical cover, interest free loans or living accommodation, that job is more involved than it sounds and getting it wrong is expensive.

What it does well

The calculations are the point. Company car benefit alone depends on list price, CO2 emissions, fuel type, availability periods and any capital contribution, and the rules change regularly. Having those built into software that is updated each tax year removes the most common source of P11D error, which is a well meaning finance assistant working from last year's rates.

The benefit types are comprehensive. Cars and fuel, vans, medical insurance, beneficial loans, assets transferred, accommodation and general expenses are all modelled properly rather than lumped into a free text box.

Online submission direct to HMRC closes the loop, and rolling benefits forward from one year to the next saves genuine time when most of your benefit provision is unchanged.

Where it falls short

It is a single purpose product with a separate subscription, and Sage does not publish a price for it, so you will need a quote. For an employer with a handful of benefits, the cost may exceed the value of the time saved, and HMRC's own free service or your accountant may be the more sensible route.

Payrolling benefits in kind is increasingly the direction of travel for UK employers, and where benefits are payrolled the P11D requirement falls away for those items. Before subscribing, work out how many of your benefits will still need a P11D at all in the next tax year, because the answer may be fewer than you expect.

The UK detail that matters

P11D is a purely UK obligation with a hard deadline of 6 July following the end of the tax year, and Class 1A National Insurance is payable by 22 July. Penalties for late filing accrue monthly per fifty employees, so the compliance case for getting this right is straightforward. Sage supports online submission to HMRC, which is now the required route.

Who should buy it

UK employers with a meaningful number of employees receiving taxable benefits, particularly company cars, who are not payrolling those benefits. Smaller employers with one or two benefits should price this against simply asking their accountant, because the answer is often the accountant.