Tax

How to pay your Self Assessment Tax Return

The annual deadline for paying your tax bill is the 31st January.

If you are required to make Payments on Account, which is a way of spreading your tax bill throughout the year using advance payments, then you will make two payments over the year – one on 31st July and the other on 31st January.

There are various ways to pay your bill.  Remember to allow time for the payment to go through before the deadline; you could receive a fine for late payment.

The fastest ways are as follows:

  • Same day or next day – paying online or telephone banking.  You can also pay by CHAPS, Debit or Credit Card or at your bank or building society.  If you use this last facility remember you need to have a paying-in slip from HMRC.
  • Within 3 working days – you can pay via BACS, Direct Debit (if this is already set up) or by cheque through the post.
  • Within 5 working days – If you haven’t already set up a Direct Debit with HMRC.

Remember if you pay by corporate credit card online, there is a fee.  You cannot pay by using your personal credit card.

For all payments use your 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference followed by the letter ‘K’ as your payment reference.

Budget Payment Plan

If you cannot afford to pay the full amount in one payment, you can set up a Budget Payment Plan and make regular payments in advance of the deadline.  Doing it this way you will need to be up to date with previous self assessment payments.

The payment plan lets you decide how much to pay each week or month and also lets you stop paying for up to 6 months.

Follow this link to set up a plan using your HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account.

If you find that you cannot pay your whole tax bill by the deadline you might be able to pay in instalments.

Check out the Gov.uk website here.

Pay through your tax code

Did you know that you can pay your self assessment bill through your tax code as long as you:

  • Owe less than £3,000 on your tax bill.
  • You pay tax through PAYE and you have submitted your paper tax return by 31st October or online by 30th December.

Finally always remember to check that your payment has been received by logging into your account.  If you have paid by post don’t forget to include a letter asking for a receipt from HMRC.

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