Self Assessment - Payment on Account

[poastoria]

Hi all.

I've completed my self assessment but I feel the calculation provided by HMRC regarding money owed (by tomorrow) and payments on account is in fact missing past payments on account.

Unfortunately I'm the other side of the country and can't open my business bank account to see statements without the 2FA keyfob.

Why doesn't HMRC's portal display payments on account made for the 2018/19 period? This seems pathetic.

Is there any other way of finding out what I've paid on account for 2018/19? From a quick google HMRC seem to have had major issues linking payments on account to portals (and it still doesn't take those into account in calculations) so it could well be I have no other way of knowing except by calling HMRC. The helpline hangs up every day in the last week due to high call volumes, so I have tried my best.

For example:
____________
Estimated payment due by 31 January 2020
You must pay the total of any tax and class 4 NIC due for 2018-19 plus first payment on account due for 2019-20 by 31 January 2020

(Note: 2nd payment of £1218 due 31 July 2020)

This amount does not take into account any 2018-19 payments on account you may have already made.

2018-2019 balancing payment - £2,450.50

1st payment on account for 2019-20 due 31 January 2020 £1,225.25
Total due by 31 January 2020 - £3,675.75

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Your calculation doesn’t take into account payments already made on account as it is strictly a calculation of your liability for that year.

If you click through to find your statements and further details it should take you to the section that still looks like the old HMRC website where it should be able to show you the full account balance including your tax bill and any payments on account.

If you know what is owed and what you’ve already paid you should be able to work out the difference. If your payments on account aren’t appearing anywhere on your account then you are going to have to ring HMRC. Good luck with that on the last day before the deadline.

[CuriousIan]

...I feel the calculation provided by HMRC regarding money owed (by tomorrow) and payments on account is in fact missing past payments on account.

Yup, that's the way they do it. The tax calculation they provide immediately upon having completed your self assessment return always add together the full tax for the tax year in question (ignoring the two payments on account) and the first payment on account for the next year. So the number is always much more than you actually owe.

Clearly they know what you've paid on account, and if you go into the Tax Account section (not the "I want to complete a Self-Assessment Return" section they'll do the math and tell you what you actually owe for the tax year. However, they only seem to be able to update this a day or two after you've completed the return. For me, I completed the return on Wednesday morning and the Tax Account section didn't update until about midday on Thursday (yesterday). At the top of the page it says something like "Figures As At 28-Jan-2020", so you know they're out-of-date.

Unfortunately, I suspect they won't have updated that page for you until it's too late.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Pro-tip: you don’t have to wait until the week before the deadline to do your tax return. You’ve had 9 months!

[sal]

Pro-tip No.2: Filing your SATR early doesn't mean you will have to pay the tax early. It's still due by 31.Jan

[ladymuck]

My year end is in July and, in the same way I do my accounts within a few weeks, my SATR is also done at pretty much the same time. I then tweak my monthly direct debit to meet the interim payments. Simples.

[rogerfederer]

I think this poster may be in the bucket of people, such as myself, who have problems viewing past payments in the HMRC portal. We were all advised to wait until mid January, but I see it's still not fixed yet.

OP if you have a penalty as a result then you can claim a refund based on the technical issue.

For those not in the know - a "minor glitch" resulted in some of those registered for self assessment and payments on account having their payments noted as absent for the 17-18 tax year.