HELP: I paid my tax bill using the wrong UTR. How do I correct??

[CityDweller]

I just realised I paid my self-assessment tax bill (last week) using the wrong UTR. I got one digit wrong when I input the reference doing the bank transfer (online banking)

I've just spent 20 mins on the HMRC website trying to work out how on earth I rectify it. I tried calling the relevant number but got cut off because 'all our advisors are busy'.

Arrrgggghhhhhhh.... What do I do?

Keep trying to call them. I am afraid this will be the quickest way to deal with it. Try calling at different times of the day if possible and you might get lucky. They also have a webchat, if you keep refreshing the page throughout the day you may be able to speak to them through that. www.tax.service.gov.uk/ask-hmrc/webchat/self-assessment

If all else fails, you could try writing to them but it would take even longer to sort sadly.

Thanks @TitusPullo. I can't be the only person to have made this mistake, but there's no info on their site about how to rectify such an error. I'll keep trying...

Thanks for paying my tax bill

@TitusPullo I don't think the online chat advisors have access to your account, do they? I thought they were just there for general advice.

@HollowTalk they have access to accounts on the agent web chat, I assumed it was the same for the public one but could be wrong.

It'll be fine. Keep trying on the phone - as long as you know what reference you used, the payments team will be able to find it an allocate it to the correct account. And you'll get credit for the day you paid it, not the day they move it across (I.e it won't be considered a late payment even if it takes them a while to find it).

I have done this. It can be resolved but only by a human being. Be persistant

And you're definitely not the first to make this mistake! I've seen many large companies do it with their corporation tax payments.

Telephone on loudspeaker, clean the house, go for a walk, make lunch, watch Netflix then speak to an adviser 👍

Yup @TiddyTid - been doing that for the last hour. Finally got through to someone who put me on hold again

Oooo I did this too, years ago. IIRC I got confused between my UTR and my taxpayer number (or something like that) and sent it in with the wrong reference. Ages later they contacted me saying I hadn't paid and after a fair bit of yes I'm sure I did and no, you really haven't back and forth I realised what I'd done and they found the payment. Don't worry OP it'll be fine. Suspect you will join me in being filed under Ditzy by HMRC

Finally spoke to the right person after 1hr45 on hold/ being transferred. Sounds like it might take a while to sort out and she seemed quite baffled by the situation. Surely it isn’t that unusual - it’s very easy to mis-type a number on a phone by one digit (which is what I did)!

This scenario scares the shit out of my every time I pay my tax. Why isn't there just a "pay now" button on the website? Why are we farting around with transfers and the potential for mistakes?

@RaspberryCoulis

This scenario scares the shit out of my every time I pay my tax. Why isn't there just a "pay now" button on the website? Why are we farting around with transfers and the potential for mistakes?

I think that, too! It's just crazy, the way they've set it up.