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I am presently completing my self-assessment for 2020/21 and due to my very simple financial situation I was expecting it to be easy. I was (and still am) a single person, employed by a single large employer under PAYE, and have no income sources other than my salary, and am claiming no deductions etc. I only need to do this thanks to earning over 100k.

However, when it comes to including taxable benefits and expenses, I am unclear as to what needs to be included. I understand that some benefits are taxable, whilst others are not (pension contributions, annual health checkups). In my case I have private medical scheme (which is taxable) and income protection and life assurance (it's not clear to me whether they are taxable or not).

I am looking at the SA100 form, specifically the section beginning:

Employment benefits and expenses The information to help you complete the next question can be found on your P11D or equivalent from your employer.

Secondly, I asked my employer's HR department how much I should include as a taxable benefit. They replied that the private medical scheme was taxed at source and hence I was not eligible for a P11D. I don't know if that means that my employer pays the tax on my behalf (can they do that?). I do see taxable benefits on my payslips coming out before the net pay figure.

Therefore I have no idea if I should be including the value of any of these benefits in the form or not? Given I am 'ineligible' for a P11D, does that mean these are not taxable benefits? It sounds like I should leave all these boxes as £0, but I am afraid of not including benefits if they are supposed to be counted.

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If you don't have a P11D, then your benefits have probably been "payrolled".

What you may see on your payslips is that the value of the benefit is added to your gross pay, then tax is calculated on the total including the benefit, and then the value is subtracted again from your net pay. So you've already paid the right tax each month. Sometimes it can be presented in more confusing ways, you might be able to get a clearer idea of what's been taxed by looking at the total taxable pay compared to your salary.

In summary: if your employer says you don't need a P11D, then neither they nor HMRC think you have any extra tax to pay on the benefits, and you don't need to enter anything in your self-assessment.

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  • Thanks - I think you're right. The breakdown of which benefits are taxable and included in the gross is not clear, but the lack of a P11D means that I think there is nothing to be added in this section of the SA100 form.
    – Zac
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 12:49
  • My last employer presented payrolled benefits in a confusing way, it was just a single net amount on the payslip and I had to check the costs of individual items in the separate benefits system for myself to check that tax and NI had been done correctly. Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 13:02
  • Yes this describes what I am seeing as well. And I'm discovering PAYE isn't quite as smooth as it could be, when your tax code changes mid-year, either. The joys of self-assessment
    – Zac
    Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 13:06
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    PAYE is a mess if you earn over £100K because they take away the personal allowance by changing your tax code instead of just charging 60% tax on the relevant band of income (which would have exactly the same effect and be much simpler to administer). Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 13:16

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