You are responsible for paying the right amount of tax at the right time. It is not HM Revenue and Customs’ job to remind you – or to let you know how much tax to pay. There are many ways to pay what you owe – you do not need a payslip. See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payinghmrc/selfassessment.htm.

If you send your paper tax return in late, HM Revenue and Customs will still work out your tax for you. But you will have to pay interest if you did not pay enough tax by the deadline.You will also be charged a penalty and possibly a surcharge.

If you do not pay the amount of tax due by 31^st January, HMRC will start charging interest. If you have have not paid the tax within 30 days (by the start of March), they will impose a 5% surcharge. This is followed by an additional 5% if you’ve still not paid within 6 months (i.e. before 1 August). If the tax is still unpaid after 12 months, there is an additional 5% charge. These amounts are not charged on payments on account (see below).

If you have sent in your self assessment return but have not had a statement or payslip from HMRC before the due date of 31 January do NOT delay paying. Under self assessment it is up to you to pay the right amount of tax at the right time. Similarly, if you cannot get your return done in time but have some idea of what you might owe, pay this anyway by 31 January to minimise interest and surcharges.

If you are having trouble paying your tax bill,see our Tax Debt Guide for help.

Payments on account:

Under self assessment, tax and class 4 national insurance contributions are due on the 31^st of January following the end of the tax year.

If your liability for the year comes to more than £1,000 (unless more than 80% of your tax liability was met by tax deducted at source such as PAYE) then you also have to make payments on account for the following year. These are half of the tax you owe for the year before due at the same time on 31 January and the same amount again the following 31 July.

If you think your income may be lower in the following year, you can apply to reduce the payments on account at any time (not just when you send the return in). But if you reduce them by too much, there will be interest back to the original date for payment.

For more information about payments on account including how and when you may ask for payments on account to be reduced, see the information pages on being self-employed.

So under self assessment, you usually pay the  tax due for each tax year in three instalments. The first two are payments on account of tax due for the current tax year. These are based on the previous year. Each payment is half the tax (and Class 4 National Insurance if you are self employed) due for the previous year, less tax paid by deduction at source. You then pay the balance of tax due to make up the right total for the year by 31 January following the tax year end. If you have paid too much tax ‘on account’, you will get a repayment.

Example:

For example, the tax on Brigitte’s income, due to HMRC for 2010/2011, totalled £2,600. Her payments on account due for 2011/2012 are:

• 31 January 2012 – first payment on account – £1,300
• 31 July 2012 – second payment on account – £1,300
• 31^st January 2013 –  submits her tax return and  pays any outstanding tax due for the year 2011/12, or gets a repayment if her liability turns out to be less than the payments on account.

Note:If you had any capital gains tax to pay for the previous year, this is completely ignored in working out your payments on account. The same applies to student loan repayments.