Archive for category: South Circular

Payments on account are normally required from any taxpayer who is assessed to income tax, of any amount, for the preceding tax year (HM Revenue and Customs).
These payments are due by the end January and July each year.
You will be asked to make two payments on account for the current tax year if the total tax due in the previous tax year is less than 80 per cent of the tax deducted at source through the Pay As You Earn system and your Self Assessment tax bill for the previous year was over £500.
Each payment on account equals half of the total tax bill that you had to pay directly to HMRC on your income for the previous tax year.
If you expect your income for the current year to be significantly different from the previous year you can ask for these payments to be adjusted. You can reduce your payments on account by filling in an additional form called SA303.
If you ask for your payments to be reduced and it turns out that you did not pay enough tax on account, you would have to pay interest on the difference from the date the payment was due.

HMRC charges interest at a variable rate, currently 2.5% since (applicable since 24/03/09).

From 6 April 2009, the threshold below which taxpayers do not need to make in-year payments on account of their annual income tax liability under the income tax self-assessment system will double from £500 to £1,000.
So if your tax liability in 08/09 is less than £1000, will not have to make instalment payments on 31 January and 31 July 2010 towards that 2009-10 liability, but will instead make a single payment on 31 January 2011.

If you would like to know more about payments on account and in what circumstances they can be reduced, Taxfile‘s tax agents could help.
Just drop us an email at info@taxfile.co.uk or ring us on 020 8761 8000.
Alternatively, you could pop in to see us at our office in Tulse Hill on the South Circular.