Can I pay part of a SA tax bill early (not by direct debit)?

[Sadik]

I don't want to set up a budget payment plan, but I've got enough ££s in my current account that I could pay around half the SA tax I'll owe at end January (effectively the balancing payment for this year, but not the payment on account for next).

Obviously, I could move it into a savings account then back again in Jan when I'll have the money to pay the whole thing - but for various reasons (how low interest rates are, the fact that my savings a/c has a limited number of free withdrawals, and also I'm budgeting for major house works in that a/c) the neatest thing would be to just pay off part of the tax now, & pay the rest once I've got the remaining cash.

Anyone do this? Will they just knock down what I owe? It's not something that's mentioned on the HMRC site...

Yes you can.
Be aware that sometimes HMRC pay it back (I had a husband and wife client who both paid early, HMRC repaid one and not the other).

That's a bit random - I guess there's no way to communicate with them and ask them not to?

Well you can try!! Lol.

Tbh if you want to pay it then do so, if they repay you'll be in no different a position than if you waited till January - which isn't that far away.

Yes you can but like Chasing said they might repay it, they are a bit dim when it comes to people paying early! I'm constantly ringing up asking them to put repayments to my clients on hold but I depends on who answers the phone whether they add a note not to make a repayment or not!!

I've never had a problem with HMRC repaying SA, corporation tax yes. Loads of our clients pay early, I paid a chunk for myself back in august. Don't forget you need to use your UTR number with K at the end of it when making a direct payment through your bank.

Have you submitted the tax return already? If you have any they're expecting a payment in January there's less likelihood of it being returned. As @userxx said, it happens all the time with CT, but can't say I've noticed it with personal tax, but it's not my area of expertise!

The good news is HMRC are paying interest on early payment of 0.5%, which is probably more than you're getting in a savings account anyway!

I reckon I'm going to give it a go, as you say Squirrels no harm done if they repay it.

It's high as I earned more than normal last year, so would like to get some of it out of the way (I'm not claiming to reduce payments on account with the theory that if my earnings are back to normal this year it'll be a nice surprise when I don't owe them much next summer!)