The Employment page of the Self Assessment tax return for limited company directors

This article provides a summary of the Employment page of the Self Assessment tax return and the relevant information required to complete it if you're a limited company director.

You need to record the details of your employment as the director of a limited company, as well as any you might have, on the Employment page of your Self Assessment tax return.

Please note that we are not authorised by HMRC to provide accounting or tax advice. Therefore, FreeAgent’s support team cannot advise you on how to fill in your tax return correctly or check your figures to see if they are correct, unless they have been calculated by the software. If you’re unsure whether a figure on your tax return is right, please speak to your accountant or to HMRC.

Completing the Employment page

Entering your income

If you have run your payroll through FreeAgent, it will automatically complete the ‘Income’ section for your employment as a limited company director. Please note that if you created journal entries for your payroll instead, or if your accountant has uploaded your payslips to FreeAgent, you will need to add the relevant figures to the Employment page manually following the same process as you would for additional paid jobs.

Adding additional paid jobs

If you have another paid job in addition to your role as a limited company director, you will need to add and complete an employment section for each of your other jobs.

To do this, return to the top of the page, enter the name of your other employer, select ‘Add employment’ and enter your taxable gross pay and the tax deducted into boxes 1 and 2 respectively. You’ll find this information on your form P60, or form P45 if you left during the tax yearwhich you will have been given by your employer. The figures you need will be highlighted with asterisks on the form.

You'll also need to enter your employer's PAYE reference which you'll find on your P60. If your employer does not have a PAYE reference write 'None' (without the apostrophes) in the PAYE reference box.

When you enter a PAYE reference, make sure that the first part of it has three digits. If your employer's PAYE reference only has two digits in the first part, e.g. 25/A1234, then please enter a 0 before the first digit, e.g. 025/A1234.

Entering benefits and expenses

If you received benefits (such as a company car) or were reimbursed expenses during the tax year, you may have been given a form P11D by your employer.

If this is the case, you will need to set the ‘Benefits from your employment’ section to ‘Yes’ and complete the relevant fields using the information on the form. Use box 16 to record any expenses that the company has paid back to you.

If you received any support payments for self-isolating due to coronavirus (Covid-19) during the tax year, enter the total you received in box 15, ‘Other benefits (including interest-free and low-interest loans)’.

If you incurred any expenses that you’re entitled to claim tax relief for and haven't been reimbursed for, set the ‘Employment expenses’ section to ‘Yes’ and complete boxes 17-20 using the information on the form.

If your employer reimbursed you for expenses during the tax year and this isn’t recorded on the P11D (or you didn’t receive a form), you don’t need to enter these figures here.

If you do not have a form P11D and did not incur any expenses while doing your job, you can leave both the 'Benefits from employment' and 'Employment expenses' sections set to ‘No’.