Self-Assessment: Your Second Payment on Account is Due 31st July

At Aspreys, we want to make sure you’re never caught off guard by an upcoming tax deadline. If you’re self-employed or file a Self-Assessment tax return, you may have a payment on account due by 31 July, and it’s important to know what this means for you.

What is a payment on account?

Payments on account are advance payments towards your tax bill, collected by HMRC twice a year. They are designed to help spread the cost of your tax bill rather than paying it all in one go.

The two deadlines each year are:

31 January— First payment on account.
31 July— Second payment on account.

Each payment on account is equal to 50% of your previous year’s tax bill. This means the amount you pay can change from year to year depending on how much you earned. For example, if your tax bill last year was £2,000, each of your two payments on account would be £1,000.

Do I need to make a payment?

Not everyone needs to make a payment on account. You will need to pay if:

Your last Self-Assessment tax bill was more than £1,000.
You don’t already have more than 80% of your tax collected at source (for example through PAYE).

If you’re unsure whether this applies to you, get in touch with us and we’ll check for you.

Has your income changed?

If your income has gone down since last year, you may be able to reduce your payment on account. This is called a claim to reduce and it’s something we can help you with.

It’s worth noting that if you reduce your payments and your actual tax bill turns out to be higher, HMRC will charge interest on the difference, so it’s important to get this right.

We’ve got you covered

At Aspreys, we make it our business to stay on top of deadlines like these so that you don’t have to. If we complete your Self-Assessment tax return on your behalf, we will already be in touch ahead of the deadline to make sure you know exactly what you owe and when.

If you’d like to talk anything through, we’re always happy to help.

[email protected] | 01932 485 325 | aspreysuk.com

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