How the fuck do I pay my tax bill?

[GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat]

Every year I go around in circles!!

Where is it?

Please help! I am logged in and it’s like a magic trick with no end 🤦🏻‍♀️

I didn't need to log in.
Went to this site
www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill
Knew the amount and paid it
(I do a paper tax return so might be different)

Once I completed the SA form online and it told me what I owed, there was a link on that page to the separate bit of the site for making the payment. Do you know how much you owe?

Can you ring hmrc, ask what you owe & pay over the phone?

I found it in the end but it wasn’t easy. I had to go back a few pages to find a link that was hidden in a list of links. Weird.

I also had to calculate how much I owed myself as the payment on account I made last year hadn’t been deducted.

I agree. It is a pain in the arse to find, and the fact that it doesn’t show what you’ve paid on a count is just crazy

When I do it's not pre-populated with the figure owed, I have to make sure I type in the correct figure myself. They say you need your UTR number but that actually was pre-populated for me.

Obviously make sure you have definitely submitted your self assessment (assuming that is what you have been doing?)

Agree the process could be more self-evident.

By the way, if this happens every year then there might be an option to make things easier for the 2020-21 tax year, if any of your income comes from an employer who uses PAYE?

Then, instead of waiting till 31st Jan 2022 before getting to this point, fill in your tax return earlier (I think it has t be before October 2021 but you can do it any time after 5th April 2021) and HMRC will adjust your 2021-22 tax code to take the money owed from 2020-21 out of the next year's earnings instead of you having a single big bill to pay.

Obviously this is useless if all your income is self employed etc.

"Tax doesn't have to be taxing" - then WHY IS IT????

It seems to take a few days after you've submitted the return for the totals to update. I find it very hard to work out what I actually need to pay. Last year I paid the whole lot in error and only realised at the July payment point that I had overpaid in Jan but it was a nice surprise as I then didn't need to pay anything in July. The payments in advance and balancing make it very confusing.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

I found it in the end but it wasn’t easy. I had to go back a few pages to find a link that was hidden in a list of links. Weird.

I also had to calculate how much I owed myself as the payment on account I made last year hadn’t been deducted.

I don't understand this at all.

I've found it easy. When you get to the end of the SA it tell you what you owe and gives you the bank details to make payment.

Never ever had to work it out myself. Are you sure you have completed the form properly? Might be worth paying an accountant next time.

In France they have local tax offices where you can go with any problem to sort out your tax affairs. There is more help to the tax payer with these offices.
I wrote a letter to HMRC last February and still haven't had any reply - I just had a note saying ''..another colleague would answer me soon...'' that was a while ago, I have also asked on the HMRC forum and HMRC answer these themselves - again no actual ''answer'' to what I was asking. There is only one enquiries phone number for the whole country for Self Assessment which takes 30 mins to answer and then one gets passed around. I think being able to go and see an actual tax officer about a problem should be introduced.

Does anyone know if it’s too late to pay it by bank transfer today?

My husband has had so many issues signing into his GG account and I’ve just found out you can pay by bank transfer instead.

I think you'll all find it's less stressful if you dont leave it to the very last day! I do mine in May and pay it in December. Then there is no stress and worry and plenty of time if there is a problem to sort it out, which there has never been in 12 years of being self employed. It's a very simple process online.

@Changesareafoot

Does anyone know if it’s too late to pay it by bank transfer today?

My husband has had so many issues signing into his GG account and I’ve just found out you can pay by bank transfer instead.

No, it will not be too late, just pay as early as you can (not sure of bank shut off time) as electronic bank transfer payments to HMRC should finalise within 2 hours - well it said mine would be there within 2 hours when I paid earlier this month..

How much would an accountant charge -- I imagine £1000 minimum.

DH hates me paying anything in advance, or I would have paid the bill the moment I worked out the amount (October). I kept many copies of the instructions and still had to hunt around with great stress to figure out find the right links and exact instructions, in early January.

Much easier to pay by transfer if you have your reference number.

My accountant is 115 a month, that covers my tax return, company returns, vat returns, payroll and my stupid questions.

Self-employed Friends with total household income of £14k (that includes benefits for 4 kids) must be paying their accountant a lot less than £115/month. I imagine they get accountant to check it all over for... £400? at end of yr. At very maximum.

DH has to pay self-assessment tax to same HMRC account, so I was paranoid about making sure my payment clearly came from me not him.

Do keep in mind that HMRC have delayed the £100 penalty until 28 Feb.

I don't leave mine till the last day, I did it a few weeks ago but still find it confusing working out what I have to pay because of the payments in advance. I submit and then go back about a week later when it has updated but it can still be a bit confusing.

Please remember to attach any UTR reference to your payment. And yes, self assessment means you are meant to keep track of what you've paid in payments on account in the year.

I work for a very very small practice. We charge from as little as £120 for preparing/submiting and the checking any HMRC statements. Bargain basement.

Started mine yesterday, took most of the day finding bits and bobs, calculation made at end automatically and not too hard to find where to pay. Calculation did not seem right though and within minutes of submitting I twigged what was wrong. I'd forgotten to enter some tax already paid. Could find no way to change my return at that point so instead of paying the calculated amount, I paid what I believe is the correct amount. It will all get sorted in the wash. Will probably call them next week to let them know. However not sure how easy it will be to talk to someone who can check my case. On the personal-account portal I didn't see anywhere to post a message.

Before I got a job that taxed at source I got an accountant to do everything. I cant cope with it. I'd rather pay someone else to do it so I dont have a total breakdown.

It’s not the last day, you have until the end of February