CCM17300 - Discrepancy Examinations: Action: Considering income discrepancy cases with Company cars and fuel, taxable vouchers and payments in kind

The customer may have received benefits from their employer which were not paid out in wages but which were taxable. These are known as benefits in kind.

Income discrepancies involving benefit-in-kind are identified where the amount a customer enters on the claim form TC600 at Box 5.4 or the renewal notice TC600RD at Box 2.3 is not the same as their employer reported on form P11D or P9D for that year.

Note: Form P9D only relates to tax year 2015 to 2016 and earlier. The form P9D and £8,500 earnings limit were abolished from 6 April 2016.

Note: Some employers are adding Benefits in Kind to the total taxable pay shown on the P60. If there is a discrepancy between the income figure shown on the PAYE system and the NTC system you must check with the employer to establish if the Benefits in Kind have been included on the P60. See TCM0118220 for Benefits in Kind that are excluded for Tax Credit purposes. If the P60 includes any of the Benefits in Kind listed, deduct them from the P60 income figure.

The amount entered by the customer could legitimately differ from the amount reported by the employer because of Gift Aid payments, pension contributions or trading losses as described at CCM17270.Where the customer is able to provide information or evidence in support of this you should decide to accept what they say and either:

• not amend the claim or award, see CCM17350
• use the information provided by the customer to amend the claim or award, see CCM17355 for pre-award cases and CCM17360 for post-award cases.

Any other differences are likely to be the result of customer error and you will decide to amend the claim or award based on HMRC’s information, see CCM17370