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Everybody knows that 6 July is the filing deadline for Employers' Annual Returns of "Benefits in Kind" Forms P11D/P9D. It has been publicised by HM Revenue & Customs in the literature which they send to employers, and on their website, along with warnings of the penalties which will be incurred if the 2010/11 forms P11D (and the summary form P11D(b)) are not submitted by 6 July 2011.

In fact, on 4 July, HMRC helpfully posted a new article on their "What's New" section,

Employers - Send Your Expenses and Benefits Forms Now which re-iterated that penalties might be incurred if returns are received after 6 July 2011.

But some practitioners and employers have long memories - and/or have read HMRC's CWG5 booklet Class 1A National Insurance Contributions on Benefits in Kind - updated for 2011 - which says at Section 25,

"The filing date for the return is 6 July. If the return is not received by 19 July it will attract a penalty of £100 per month of part month of lateness, for every 50 or part-batch of 50 employees provided with benefits."

We could find no mention of this elsewhere, save for a hint on the Class 1A NIC payslip itself, (and not all employers will have a liability or scrutinise a payslip), and worse was anecdotal evidence that the Employers' Helpline was emphatic that failure to file by 6 July would result in a penalty.

In the end, we had to resort to HMRC's Press Office to obtain confirmation that penalties would only be incurred if the P11Ds, etc., were not submitted by 19 July. (But please do note that the penalty 'day' remains 6 July - the second 'month' for 'failure to file' penalties will still commence on 6 August).

We have asked HMRC to lend its weight to publicising the further 13 days' grace available to employers and their agents, before 19 July comes around!