Patterson said: “HMRC is reliant on data being given to them. It is vital to ensure that information is exact so correct tax codes can be issued to employees.

“If wrong tax codes are sent to employees by HMRC then drivers will notice.”

As a result, drivers could find themselves either being taxed too much or not enough, seeing their take-home pay hit immediately or being asked at a future date to reimburse the taxman.

Lex Autolease insists the problem was a particular issue for daily rental vehicles.

Andy Hartley, the company’s head of third-party supply, said: “We are aware of concerns over the quality of P11D reporting on behalf of some customers over the last year, specifically in relation to daily rental vehicles.

“We are continuing to work closely with our rental suppliers and Epyx, which provides our back-office rental processing system, to improve data timeliness and quality.

“However, it has to be noted that the timeliness of P11D data on short-term rental vehicles is variable due to the nature of that market.”

Hartley told Fleet News that rental vehicles were often acquired by hire companies at very short notice and delivered in batches with varying specifications and engine configurations.

“The majority are rapidly registered and provided to the retail market, where P11D reporting is irrelevant,” he added. “For this reason, the quality of data required for fleet customers can be inconsistent and requires a period of time to compile after the start of a new rental.”
 

• Have you been affected by this issue? If so, email gareth.roberts@bauermedia.co.uk