Company car users can now update their details online

  Company car users can now update their details online by simply using the Check or update your company car tax service. What this means for some is they will no longer have to phone or write to HMRC.

This online service will mean that employees will not have to wait while HMRC update their records and then change their tax code. Encouragement by employers for their employees to use this service should also result in fewer enquiries as the changes are made in real time.

Employees can use the new digital car service to:

• Amend their company car benefits or change their car fuel details, for example if they change their company car
• Remove a company car benefit if they no longer have access to a company car
• Add a company car benefit if they start getting a company car for the first time.

Employees who are part of a car averaging or car sharing scheme will not be able to use this digital service, nor are employees whose benefits in kind and expenses payrolled.

When an employee uses this service for the first time they will have to verify their identity. They will need to have to hand:

• Either a valid UK passport and/or UK photocard driving licence
• Access to their financial information.

Checking or updating your company car tax service is now part of the new Personal Tax Account (PTA). As yet the PTA is not live it is currently being tested with some customers. The PTA will act in a similar way to an online bank account, bringing all the details of each customer into one place.

The service was introduced in July 2015, more services are being added and HMRC aim to have more customers using this service by the end of this year and by 2020 everyone will have a Personal Tax Account.

This information was published in HMRC Employer Bulletin 56.

  Comment

This is a secure service and HMRC hope it will help reduce the burden on employers. However, if an employee doesn’t understand the details within their account, where are they going to go for an explanation and information?