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 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Frazzled2207

I was coming on to ask exactly this but as I did my self assessment a year ago the how to pay option is now there (it wasn't a few days ago). Am really annoyed by having to pay half the next year 'on account'. This tax year has been a complete disaster for my business. I will likely get this back next year, right?

Technically you are not paying half of next year on account. You are paying half of this year on account. In a usual year you would have already earned that money on which tax is due as we do tax returns almost a year after we have earned it. Appreciate that COVID has screwed the whole thing up for many but as PP says you can request for that figure to be lowered, as you can for other reasons eg going on maternity leave.

@Frazzled2207 no, you never get it back. Every year you pay in advance.

The tax calculation for your January payment is always minus what you paid on account last year. So after the first year of self employment you are just paying what you owe.

I'm doing mine now - it's my nightmare, and this year I decided not to use an accountant, as they quoted me what to me is one week's pay. And I've as usual procrastinated till the last minute.
So if you haven't left time for the payments to update, does it make sense to try to pay today, before the deadline, or does it make sense to pay a few days late, once the payments info has updated?

Get an accountant if you can afford it. I think I'd crack up if I had to do my own.

@Frazzled2207 Definitely ask to reduce your payments on account! Do a quick calculation of what you expect this years tax & NI bill to be.

I work in a practice that specialises in SATRs, I also do probate work on the side for friends. It's crazy how many people leave it until January but I love the buzz this month! Luckily we were finished by Wednesday, I worked 75 hours last week! 😱

I didn't pay anything on account last year, as I didn't make enough to pay tax last tax year. Do I just pay tax for the whole 19-20 tax year today? Do I have to pay something towards the 20-21 tax year too?

It's really easy to get it lowered. One year they wanted DP to make a large payment on account, but he had just started a PAYE job that would have covered his tax for that year so there wouldn't have been any SE tax to pay. He wrote this in the box, didn't pay the amount on account, and got an email a few days later saying it was all OK.

I'm assuming they have people checking what people have written and authorising them or going back to people to refuse and ask for the payment on account.

Do if you've not earned much due to covid, do this.

@NeverEnoughCats

I charge about £150 for a basic tax return, more for something more complicated (e.g. lots of supplementary pages), or where the accounts aren't complete. You don't necessarily need an accountant - lots of bookkeepers are registered as agents for self-assessment with HMRC (myself included).

I agree, but even some qualified accountants charge similar amounts. I'm a fully qualified chartered accountant of over 35 years, and often find myself charging less than unqualified accountants or experienced book-keepers. It all depends on overheads, location, staffing, type of work, etc. It's certainly not automatic that a qualified accountant charges more than an experienced book-keeper. My "cheapest" tax return is only £45 and I'm happy with that because the client does exactly what is asked for, on time, never any mistakes, never anything missing, all neatly written down and cross referenced to the paperwork - a lovely little job to do (and no stupid questions either!).

I celebrated when I no longer had to do a tax return!!!

@tara66
@Movinghouseatlast
@Bohemond

thank you. I am certain I will owe significantly less from 2020-21 than the payment on account suggests. So will do my new tax return as soon as possible after april and fill in form SA303 to hopefully reduce my July payment?

Time for me to get a new accountant too! I gave him all the information in excel spreadsheet etc from early November last year and have been chasing him since. Finally got a reply this week saying he's submitted without even allowing me to check first!

He also indicated that it appears that I may have an owed amount from last year's returns' balancing payment which I had paid in July so I'm presuming that what he's referring to is what people have said - that the system updates taking into account any balancing payment made.

However, he probably hasn't had that update yet. It's annoying that I probably would have paid less had he done his job in good time 🤬

I made my payment online yesterday and RBS indicates that payment won't go through until 1/2/21. Probably should have paid via my RBS app - perhaps payment would have been immediate, especially given that this is an existing payee account.

Anyhoo, I presume that the interest for one day will be pennies.

[quote Passthewinebottle]@Frazzled2207 Definitely ask to reduce your payments on account! Do a quick calculation of what you expect this years tax & NI bill to be.

I work in a practice that specialises in SATRs, I also do probate work on the side for friends. It's crazy how many people leave it until January but I love the buzz this month! Luckily we were finished by Wednesday, I worked 75 hours last week! 😱[/quote]
thank you. I have paid it now but will try and get it sorted before I have to pay another instalment in July. I can't get my head round estimating 20-21 right now but I know it will be about a quarter of 19-20

I've also had a bad year, but presumably I can pay for half a year on account (based on last tax year's better year), and then do my self assessment in May, and then hopefully pay very little in respect of the 2nd half of the tax year?
I have the money available, and it's not paying me any interest to speak of.

*Making an online banking payment with your reference number is surely the best way to make any kind of payment. How is that not a great system?

Provided you haven't changed your bank you just click on the previous payee that you know works and keep using it

I think it couldn't really be easier.*

Agree. This is how I do it and it works perfectly. What would be better? The details stay in my online banking from year to year.

@slitheringsnakes
it's not absolutely clear to me how it works but this is what I intend to do. I think best that we do the new self assessment asap in april and also fill this in (unless doing the new self assessment automatically reduces it which I suppose is possible) www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-claim-to-reduce-payments-on-account-sa303

My husband phoned them yesterday as his tax was showing wrong. It took 3 attempts to get through but the man who he got through to was very helpful and sorted out the problem and then my husband paid by debit card over the phone. I agree, I often go round in circles trying to find what I'm looking for

@Frazzled2207
Did yours go through as paid today and if so was it via app or bank's online?

[quote maggiethecat]@Frazzled2207
Did yours go through as paid today and if so was it via app or bank's online?[/quote]
I've done a bank transfer about an hour ago, it has gone through but the account still says is owing. But it says it might take 7 days to show as paid even though they should have already received the money.

It is simple to make payment, you just need this link where it shows a variety of ways to pay. You do need to know the amount obviously.

www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill

I give that link to all my clients who ask, although most set up a bank transfer that they can use year after year.

@iwishiwasatcentralperk
indeed it is easy but if you've literally just done your tax return it doesn't show up

Beginning of year, set up savings account to pay tax

In November put in diary - Sort out tax & pay

Mine was completed & paid last week

The deadline is the same every year 31 Jan

You can also set up a monthly direct debit with HMRC for an amount of your choosing (based on rough guesstimate of earnings) and it goes onto your tax account. At the end of the year you hopefully have enough to cover your tax or at least not get a nasty shock. If you have any leftover they ask you if you want to roll it over or have it refunded back to you.

So I’ve submitted my self assessment today and know the calculation. On “your balance” it says I have no tax to pay but assume that’s because it can take up to 72 hours to update balance.

So do I pay the amount in the calculation now?

To pay online in my banking app I use my UTR and the letter K as my reference number when making the payment?

Presume I use HMRC Cumbernauld as I don’t know which it would be

Thank you!

Yes it’s my first year filing and yes I’ve left it until the final day to click submit because I’m a massive procrastinator

@FabbyMagic
yes it takes a few days to show up but you can do that which is basically what i just did.