HMRC is running a trial of an online service allowing company car drivers to make changes to car and fuel benefits that will affect their tax codes
This means that PAYE taxpayers who have company cars will be able to make any changes online to details of their company cars and will no longer have to wait for HMRC to update their tax code for them.
Mark Dearnley, HMRC’s chief digital and information officer, said: ‘This trial means that we can incorporate customer’s feedback to ensure we deliver a service they want.’
HMRC says that where employers have adopted payrolling of benefits in kind, taxpayers will not need to use the new digital service as they will be paying the right amount of tax in real time.
To check or update their company car tax details online, company car drivers must also have their car’s list price (including VAT and accessories) and CO2 emissions information at hand.
The service cannot be used if the individual is part of a car averaging or car sharing scheme or their employer is managing benefits and expenses through the company payroll (known as ‘payrolling’).
The pilot is one of a number of initiatives designed to reduce phone contacts with HMRC, which currently receives about 4.3m calls a year from individuals about their tax codes.
Dearnley said: ‘Our digital services will deliver significant savings to HMRC’s customers in both the cost of phone calls and time spent dealing with the department. They will also mean that people can deal with the department when it is most convenient for them – rather than for us.’
The new digital service is being implemented using a new authentification facility, gov.uk Verify, which offers a way for people to prove who they are when using government digital services. An individual’s identity is authenticated by a certified company in an online process which takes around 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
The new Verify system requires users to have their financial information to hand, including bank statements, in order to use the service and be authenticated. Essentially this gives HMRC access to far more information than would normally be available to them through conventional records.
The new digital service is available at https://www.gov.uk/update-company-car-details
