Have you paid your tax?

31 January 2018 is the deadline for payment of balancing tax liabilities for 2016/17 together with first payments on account (POA) towards 2017/18 tax liabilities. This is the same as the deadline for filing 2016/17 self-assessment tax returns online with HMRC. HMRC automatically charge a penalty of £100 for any late returns, with additional penalties charged for returns more than 3 months late. HMRC also charge penalties for late payment with interest charged on any payments not made by the deadline and a further 5% surcharge applied to balancing payments paid more than 30 days late.

HMRC have made some important changes to the way they accept payments of individuals’ self assessment tax liabilities. Since 15 December 2017 HMRC have not accepted payments made at the Post Office, and from 13 January 2018 they no longer accept payment by personal credit card. Payment cannot be made by credit card as HMRC are no longer permitted to charge fees for payment by credit card. As a public funded body, HMRC is unable to absorb the cost of personal credit card fees as this would ultimately mean charging the fees back to customers through the public purse. However, payments by debit cards and corporate credit cards continue to be accepted.

HMRC are also encouraging all customers to pay using the following methods as these are more secure and may save you time and expense:

• Direct Debit
• Online or telephone banking (including Faster Payments, BACS & CHAPS)

Where electronic payment is not possible, payments can still be made at bank branches (with a payslip) and cheque payments for Self Assessment tax can still be posted to HMRC.

You can find more information about paying HMRC at www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill