HMRC tells fleets to prepare now for real-time company-car tax reporting

October 28, 2026

A busy motorway with the sun shining in the background.

Fleet and payroll teams should start preparing for a major change in the way company-car Benefit-in-Kind is reported.

HMRC’s latest Employer Bulletin confirms that, from 6 April 2027, the first phase of mandatory real-time payrolling will cover company cars, car fuel, vans and van fuel, alongside employer-provided medical benefits.

That means taxable benefits increasingly need to be calculated and reported through payroll as they arise rather than being reconciled later through the traditional P11D process.

For fleets, the challenge will be data quality.

Payroll teams need accurate information about vehicle allocation, P11D values, fuel benefit and driver changes quickly enough for tax calculations to remain correct.

Businesses should therefore use the remaining months to test how information moves between fleet-management, leasing, HR and payroll systems.

The move towards real-time reporting makes disconnected data and delayed vehicle updates much harder to tolerate.

FleetWise has already highlighted the importance of keeping reimbursement systems current as HMRC rates change; the same principle now applies to Benefit-in-Kind reporting. Read FleetWise’s HMRC reimbursement guidance