Ways to Pay your Self Assessment Tax Bill

Did you know that you can’t make payment at a Post Office anymore? Or that you can no longer pay your tax bill using your personal credit card? Or that you need to allow 5 working days to pay via a new Direct Debit? 

No? Well, then this blog is for you. Read on to find out how you can make sure you pay your tax bill on time for the deadline on 31st January 2019 and avoid incurring penalties or charges.

HMRC have made a few changes to the ways in which you can pay your Self Assessment Tax Bill in January 2019.

Chief among them is that they have removed the facility to pay what you owe on your personal credit card. Whilst it would be nice to think that this was a move was to stop people getting themselves into terrible personal debt, the truth is that new legislation meant HMRC were unable to charge back payment fees directly to the customer.

Here we detail what you will need to make payment, and the different methods available.

What You Will Need

To make payment, you will need:

Your Unique Taxpayer Reference Code (UTR)

Your UTR is a 10-digit code. You’ll need to use this code followed by the letter “K” as your reference to enable HMRC to correctly allocate your payment against your account.

You can find your UTR on your HMRC online account, or on any paper statements.

HMRC’s Bank Details

Your bill will tell you which account you need to pay into but, if you’re note sure or you have no bill available, pay to the HMRC Cumbernauld account.

HMRC Cumbernauld

Sort Code - 083210

Account - 12001039

HMRC Shipley

Sort Code - 083210

Account - 12001020

If your account is overseas, you can find the BIC and IBAN codes here.

The Amount you Owe

Obviously! But don’t forget to include any amounts due for your January 31st payment on account.

HMRC's Accepted Methods of Payment 

As of January 2019, these are HMRC’s accepted methods of payment:

Same or Next Day Payment

• Online or Telephone Banking
• CHAPS payments 

Your Bank will make a charge for CHAPS payments, usually around £20. Make sure you’re within your Bank’s individual processing times to ensure payment is received on time - many have an early cut off time.

• By Debit or Corporate Credit Card online

A non-refundable fee is levied on any credit card payments.

You can make an online card payment here.

• Some people can still pay at their Bank or Building Society

If you still get paper statements and have a physical HMRC paying in slip, you can also make payment at your Bank or Building Society. If you pay between Monday and Friday, HMRC will accept your payment on the day it’s made, not the day it hits their account.

3 Working Days

• BACS Payment
• Existing Direct Debit*
• By Cheque through the Post

You can send a cheque to HMRC at:

HMRC

Direct

BX5 5BD

Make cheques payable to “HM Revenue and Customs only” followed by your UTR, and include a paying in slip. Don’t fold or fasten them together.

If you get paper statements still, your paying in slip will be on your statement. 

If not, you can print one from here. 

You can’t use these slips to pay at a Bank.

5 Working Days

• New Direct Debit*

You can set up a new Direct Debit to HMRC here.

Notes on Direct Debits

You have to set up single payments every time you want to pay via Direct Debit, but if the instruction is in place already, you only need to allow 3 working days in future.

So if you want to use your Direct Debit to make your payment on account on the 31st July, you’ll need to give yourself 3 working days.

Our advice?

Give yourself as much time as you can to make your payment. 

As the deadline approaches and the numbers of submissions rocket, online payment services can be very slow - last year, just under 1.3million returns were filed on the 30th and 31st January. Between 4 and 5pm on the 31st, they were getting 1,010 returns every minute - and many people make payment as they file.

Don’t panic if you haven’t started your Return yet, there’s still time! 

And don’t forget, our expert Tax Team are on hand to handle the preparation and submission of your Return for you, taking all the hassle off your hands.