How to pay Self Assessment Tax online as deadline looms

Martin Lewis provides advice on self-assessment tax deadline

The self assessment deadline falls at the very last day of the month by which you have to file the return itself and pay any tax owed to HMRC or risk a series of heavy and increasing penalty notices. If you still haven’t filled in your tax return form but need to do so, make sure you get it done on time and are able to access a payment scheme if needed. Sarah Coles at Hargreaves Lansdowne advises: “If you’re worried about affording your tax bill, it’s tempting to put your tax return off altogether, but it’s essential you get cracking and hit the deadline.”

How to pay your self assessment tax bill online

The first step is to check you can access the HMRC online system to fill in your form.

This is something you should check as soon as possible, and if you don’t have the details you may need to have them posted to you.

In order to use the system, you will need your Unique Taxpayer Reference Number and your password.

If you don’t know either of these details, there are ways to retrieve them on the HMRC website, and you can normally get them online if you still have access to the email address you signed up with.

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If not, getting a new reference number can take up to ten days in the post so if you need to complete this step, do it today.

If you have never filed online before, it can also take up to ten days to receive a Unique Taxpayer Number and activation code in two separate letters.

To complete this step, you can follow the registration here. 

This year’s deadline falls on a Sunday, meaning it’s extra important you get started as soon as possible as HMRC’s phone lines and web chat services are closed on weekends.

To simplify the process, gather all your paperwork together in one place so it’s easy to go through and get what you need.

The amount of paperwork you need will depend entirely on whether you’re employed or self-employed and what your sources of income are.

Jamie Morrison from accountancy firm HW Fisher said: “Gathering paperwork takes longer than you think.”

If you’re employed, you’ll need a number of documents from your employer which Mr Morrison says “includes your P60, which will confirm the total tax you have paid on your income”.

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He added: “You will also need a record of benefits and expenses, which can be found on your P11D or P9D forms.

“If you have left a job in the last tax year, you will also need a P45 from your previous employer.”

Once you’ve filled in the easy parts of the tax form, it’s time to make sure you’re not forking out too much.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer one of the most essential things to check is whether you’re entitled to claim higher rates of pension tax relief.

In many cases, your pension provider will only add back 20 percent in basic rate tax onto your retirement contributions when, in reality, you’re entitled to 40 percent if you pay a higher rate.

This applies to private pensions and some workplace pensions too, depending on how they are run.

In addition, if you claim Child Benefit as a family, it’s vital you record this correctly on your tax return.

That’s because if anyone in your household has an income of more than £50,000 and there is an incoming Child Benefit payment, you will have to start paying it back.

For every £100 of income, you get over £50,000 you have to pay one percent of the benefit, and once your income goes over £60,000 you repay the entire amount.

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