Why is a car missing from my P46(car) submission?

Background

When you run the P46(car) routine from the P11D Organiser, the system will gather a list of all the car movement changes within the current tax year since the last P46(car) submission.

Generally, these would include the provision of a car, the withdrawal of a car, or the replacement of a car. However, changes to other data related to a car may mean the car is included on the submission - examples include a change of list price, a change of CO2, or a change of the range – basically any elements used in the calculation that would cause a change to the cash equivalent.

It is important to remember that changes will only be sent for cars that are currently assigned – once a car is withdrawn or replaced as far as HMRC are concerned (you have submitted a P46(car)), you can make no more alterations via a P46(car) – see this article: I have submitted the wrong, or incorrect car information to HMRC via a P46(car) – what should I do?.

Where’s My Car - Why is it Missing?

Assuming you have entered all the car information, and assigned it to an employee, that car should appear in the submission. If the car you are expecting to see is missing, the two most common reasons are:

1. You have allocated a car to an employee on the first day of the tax year (06/04) – this is a special date, and you would need to mark that car manually as being provided on that day. To accomplish this, you would located the employee in question, open the car allocation, and then click on the P46(car) Settings button at the bottom of the screen:
   On the window that is then displayed, tick the “Car is provided for the first time at the beginning of the current tax year” box:
2. The second possible reason is that the car allocation you are looking for is ‘future dated’ – a P46(car) submission can only be made for events that have happened, so if the change you have made was for ‘today’ or any date in the future, it will not appear in the submission. As far as HMRC are concerned, the submission can only include movements that happened between the start of the tax year and up to, and including, the day before you’re a making the submission. This means you would need to wait until AFTER the event has occurred to submit the information.

Note: It is important to remember that the P46(car) process lets HMRC know about changes to employees’ cars; HMRC use this information to alter their tax code to try and collect the correct tax In-year. However, it is the end of year P11D submission that sends the final financial position, and it is that which HMRC use to finally collect the right amount.