As you are aware the self-assessment deadline of 31 of January 2018 is fast approaching, here are five ways to pay before the deadline to ensure you avoid any unnecessary penalties.

Listed below are the methods you can use to pay your tax liability.

 By debit or credit card or by BACS

If you wish to pay via debit or credit card online or over the phone you will need your 10-digit unique taxpayer reference (UTR) followed by the letter ‘K’. This will be on your tax return and computation.

It is important to note HMRC will no longer accept payments from personal credit cards, so if you are paying with a credit card ensure it is a business account.

The debit or credit card link is as follows (you will incur a fee if you pay by credit card):

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/pay-online/self-assessment

Alternatively, you can pay by BACS as follows (assuming your account is UK based)

 Sort Code   Account Number     Account Name

083210            12001039                    HMRC Cumbernauld

OR

083210            12001020                    HMRC Shipley

 Your bill should advise you which account to use, but if you are unsure, use HMRC Cumbernauld.

At your bank or building society

You can only pay at your branch by cash or cheque if you both:

·         still get paper statements from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

·         have the paying-in slip HMRC sent you

Make your cheque payable to ‘HM Revenue and Customs only’ followed by your reference number - this is your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR). Followed by the letter ‘K’. You’ll find it on your paying-in slip. 

Direct Debit

If you wish to pay via Direct Debit you will need to set up a Direct Debit through your HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online account to make single payments for 31 January. If you will need to make a payment on account, then you will also need to set up another debit before 31^st July.

You’ll also need to use your 11-character payment reference. This is your 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) followed by the letter ‘K’.

Please Allow 5 working days to process a Direct Debit the first time you set one up. It should take 3 working days the next time if you’re using the same bank details.

By cheque through the post

 You can send a cheque by post to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

HMRC 
Direct 
BX5 5BD 

Please allow 3 working days for your payment to reach HMRC.

In the envelope you should include:

A cheque payable to ‘HM Revenue and Customs only’, followed by your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR). You’ll find this on your paying-in slip.

Include the paying-in slip HMRC sent you (if you still get paper statements). Don’t fold the paying-in slip or cheque or fasten them together. If you don’t have a paying-in slip you can print a slip to use to pay by post. However, you won’t be able to use this at a bank.

Through your tax code

You could have paid your Self-Assessment bill through your PAYE tax code providing you met the following criteria:

·         you owe less than £3,000 on your tax bill

·         you already pay tax through PAYE, for example you’re an employee or you get a company pension

·         you submitted your paper tax return by 31 October or your online tax return online by 30 December

How it’s set up;

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will have automatically collected what you owe through your tax code if you met all 3 conditions. unless you’ve specifically asked them not to (on your tax return).

If you’re not eligible, you wouldn’t have been able to pay this way. You aren’t legible if:

·         you don’t have enough PAYE income for HMRC to collect it

·         you’d pay more than 50% of your PAYE income in tax

·         you’d end up paying more than twice as much tax as you normally do