Individuals have to make 2 payments on account every year unless:

• your last Self Assessment tax bill was less than £1,000
• you’ve already paid more than 80% of all the tax you owe, for example through your tax code or because your bank has already deducted interest on your savings

Each payment on account is half your previous year’s tax bill. Payments are usually due by midnight on 31 January and 31 July.

If you still have tax to pay after you’ve made your payments on account, you must make a ‘balancing payment’ by midnight on 31 January next year.

You should receive a reminder from your accountant to make your second payment on account by 31 July 2022, with payments due by midnight to avoid any late payment fines.

Payments can be made:

• online using a debit card or corporate credit card
• bank transfer (online or phone banking) or Direct Debit (make sure you leave enough time for a Direct Debit to go through – five working days the first time you set one up, or three the next time you pay using the same bank details)
• at your bank or building society (if you still get paper statements from HMRC, or you have the paying-in slip HMRC sent you)
• by cheque through the post

You will need to reference your Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number followed by the letter ‘K’, to ensure it is correctly allocated against your tax account.

Speak to Roake & Cook if you would like assistance with your self-assessment payments. We can offer all the usual accounting services like bookkeeping and tax advice consultancy. We are also Xero migration specialists, so can help with all things cloud-based accounting.