About The Car Benefit Calculator

Our Company Car Benefit calculator works out a car's annual benefit including fuel benefit, taxes and employer's NIC.

The calculations take account of any adjustment required for:

• employee capital contributions towards the car's purchase price;
• employee private use contributions for the car; and
• factory fitted option selections which change the CO2 output of the vehicle
• tax rate differentials for tax residents of Scotland compared to England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Please note that factory fitted options are available as a separate API in relation to solely the cost of the options.

At the present time there are no data providers able to supply individual option CO2 outputs or cummulative option CO2 output which would be required for the calculation of CO2 derived company car benefit.

Company car benefit for electric cars is not CO2 based, so options on electric company cars do not change the company car benefit calculation.

Standard equipment can also be provided as a separate API - see our API for Standard Equipment.

This page shows the API implementation requirements. To see a 'white label' version of the company car tax calculator click on this link (opens in a new window).

Dataset

Data can be provided as 'JSON' or 'XML' datasets and you can choose the type of data returned in your HTTPS request by declaring 'json' or 'xml' in the 'd_Type' element of the request string.

JSON is the default type for the dataset if no 'd_Type' is set.

Our Demo

Our demonstrator provides an illustration of how the car benefit calculator works using XML.

To select a vehicle for the company car benefit and tax calculation just choose a manufacturer, then a range and model from the list boxes below.

We will display the relative HTTPS {GET} requests for each stage of car selection; you can copy and paste the sample request strings into a browser address bar to see the raw XML data returned for the request (right click on the browser page displayed and you will see the XML dataset).

You can also substitute XML for JSON when you perform the 'copy|paste' exercise.

As each vehicle model selection is made the returned dataset in our demo also includes the vehicle derivative's CAP-HPI ID code ('CAPID'), manufacturer, range and model name for verification.

{GET} Requirements

The {GET} request follows standard HTTPS key:value pair protocols. No response will be given for an HTTP request.

The {GET} request for the company car benefit calculation only requires our standard security login/session token and the car's CAPID.

The manufacturer, range and model name are not required for the calculation, but these items will be returned as part of the dataset for verification purposes.

The CAPID must be for a vehicle currently for sale new in the UK - a CAPID for a discontinued model or retired derivative will not return a dataset.

A dataset will only be provided where the vehicle P11D value can be calculated from:

• the list price;
• the price of any selected options; and
• the delivery charges

and where a WLPT CO2 value is available in the CAP-HPI database for both the standard vehicle derivative and any additional CO2 derived from options.

At the moment we are unable to adjust CO2 values automatically for option selections - as this data becomes available we will add it to the parameters for the {GET} request.

Until further notice the CO2 value for factory fitted options must be added manually as part of the {GET} request.

Optional

The Company Car Benefit calculation for a vehicle is based on the vehicle's published list price, less any allowable capital contributions, plus the cost of options fitted and delivery charges.

The total of these amounts forms the taxable or 'P11D value' for the Company Car Benefit calculation.

The benefit calculation is also influenced by the extend of any employee payments for the private use of the car.

You can include details of the cost of options and any employee capital or private use contributions towards the car in the {GET} request and these values will be used to adjust the P11D value accordingly.

Options:
The key for the total price of options is "optionsprice" and the value should be the VAT inclusive cost of options for the vehicle.

This is a double type value for the total VAT inclusive cost of options fitted to the car. The value is added to the vehicle's list price and delivery charges to create the raw 'P11D value'.

A nil value is not required.

Options CO2:
The key for the additional CO2 output of factory fitted options is "o_co2" and the value should be an integer for the total additional CO2 impact of selected factory fitted options (excluding the initial CO2 output of the vehicle derivative).

The options CO2 output value is added to the vehicle derivative's standard WLTP CO2 output to determine the taxable percentage of list price for the company car and car fuel benefits and the vehicle excise duty (tax disc).

A nil value is not required.

Capital contributions:
The key for an employee capital contribution is "capcon" and the value should an integer representing the VAT inclusive employee capital contribution towards the cost of the vehicle.

For tax purposes the capital contribution will reduce the capital cost of the vehicle and therefore the P11D value returned in the dataset, subject to the limits set out in tax legislation.

Our Car Benefit Calculator will adjust the tax deductible amount used in the car benefit calculation if the capital contribution exceeds the maximum permitted amount.

In the returned dataset, if the amount of the capital contribution exceeeds the maximum permitted tax deductible amount only the permitted maximum will be displayed.

If a 'double' type value is included in the request it will be rounded to the nearest integer.

A nil value is not required.

Private Use Contributions:
If an employee contributes towards the cost of private use of a company car you can include either a monthly or annual value in the {GET} request.

The key for the monthly value is "pucm" and the value should be the VAT inclusive cost of options for the vehicle.

The monthly value can be a 'double' type variable (e.g. 50.25) representing the VAT inclusive employee contribution towards the availability of the car for private use.

This value will be multiplied by 12 to annualise it, then rounded down to an integer value (e.g. 603 using the 50.25 value shown above) for the benefit calculation (HMRC uses the annualised private use contribution and typically ignores pence in the calculation).

The key for the annual value is "puca" and the value should be the VAT inclusive cost of options for the vehicle.

The value should be an integer (e.g. 603) representing the VAT inclusive employee contribution towards the availability of the car for private use.

If a 'double' type value is included in the request it will be rounded to the nearest integer.

If you provide values for both the monthly and annual contribution the Company Car Benefit calculator will ignore the monthly value and use the annual contribution.

For tax purposes, private use contributions reduce the annual taxable benefit of a company car and therefore the company car benefit returned in the dataset, subject to the limits set out in tax legislation.

The private use contribution may in some circumstances exceed the annual company car benefit, in which case the benefit will be zero and the dataset value will be '0' - a negative benefit is not permitted under tax law.

A nil value is not required for either the monthly or annual private use contribution.

Tax Residence

The Company Car Benefit calculator delivers the results for both Scotland and the rest of the UK, so the results do not require the user to specify their place of tax residence.

However, you can separate the results according to tax residence. Simply place a radio button on your website which indicates the place of tax residence as either Scortalnd or the rest of the UK.

If the user selects 'Scotland' as their place of tax residence then display the results that include the following items:

• CAR_BEN_TAX_19, FUEL_BEN_TAX_19, TAX_RATE_1_S
• CAR_BEN_TAX_21, FUEL_BEN_TAX_21, TAX_RATE_3_S
• CAR_BEN_TAX_42, FUEL_BEN_TAX_42, TAX_RATE_4_S
• CAR_BEN_TAX_48, FUEL_BEN_TAX_48, TAX_RATE_6_S

If the user selects 'Rest of the UK' (or similar, e.g. outside Scotland) as their place of tax residence then display the results that include the following items:

• CAR_BEN_TAX_20, FUEL_BEN_TAX_20, TAX_RATE_1
• CAR_BEN_TAX_40, FUEL_BEN_TAX_40, TAX_RATE_2
• CAR_BEN_TAX_45, FUEL_BEN_TAX_45, TAX_RATE_3

The remaining results from the calculator are not related to the place of tax residence.

Calculation

Once you have selected a vehicle below click on the 'Calculate' button to see a returned dataset.

You will also see the entire {GET} request string as an example and the returned dataset structured as a typical online representation of XML for the company car benefit, fuel benefit, employer's NIC and employee tax values for the selected car.

This will include the dataset XML node descriptions so that you can see the schema.

We have included items such as the Registration Fee and 1st Year's tax disc (VED) in the dataset display for completeness in case you wish to display the on-the-road-price of the car.

The returned dataset is not formatted (e.g. for currencies) to allow you to apply your own display format/styling.

Once you've gone through the calculation process you can also see a sample implementation of the Company Car Benefit and tax/NIC calculation.

Click on the 'View Sample Implementation' button to open a new browser window with a sample web display page.

Security

A session token is created on initial login and must be included as a cookie with all HTTPS requests or the request will fail.

If the user's browser does not allow functional cookies then the {GET} request will become orphaned and the request cannot be linked to any other requests in the same session.

If the session token is not included then the session will be terminated, any data created in the session may be erased at the server and the user may need to re-authenticate with a new session.

For security reasons the HTTPS protocol must be used for all {GET} requests so that all data passed between the browser and the server is encrypted, including the session token.

Pair:Value Summary

d_type: xml or json for the required return data type (json if not specified)
CAPID: valid CAPID for a car not discontinued
optionsprice: double type value for the cost of options
o_co2: integer value for the additional CO2 value of factory fitted options
pucm: integer or double type value for any monthly private use contribution
puca: integer for any annual private use contribution
capcon: integer or double type value for any capital contribution