Will I get a bill from HMRC You’ve done your tax return, you did it back in let’s say June. That’s fine you had a calculation out of the system or off your accountant and you’d really like to pay the bill, well “really like” to pay the bill is a bit of a strong word but you would like to make payment. What do you do – do you sit and wait. Surely they’ll send you an invoice or a bill or a statement, after all how would you know what to do. Well as I said being very cynical you very rarely get statements from HMRC. It depends on when you do your tax return and if you have payments to make. They do send statements in May and June with regard to the 31st of July payment and they will try and send statements around about early November, possibly through to the end of November if you have a payment to make in January, but if you haven’t done your tax return by then, you’re not going to get any statements. So what do you do? Well HMRC expects you to remember that you’ve got to make a payment to them so they won’t send you a bill. You may not get a statement you might have missed the deadline or you might be lucky to get one so what do you do?
You need to log on to your online tax account and find out if you have a payment to make and on it, it will tell you how to make payment as there are various different ways from posting a cheque – what’s a cheque I hear you say – direct debit, and online payment from your bank account – but how secure are they?
Well they’re pretty secure so if you do want to use online banking is absolutely no different to what you would currently do. There is another blog post about how to pay HMRC which you can find here – How to Pay HMRC Getting a Receipt: You’ve made payments – woohoo. Surely you’ll get a receipt for your payment, after all, it could be several thousand pounds or more!
NO – nothing
Again, once paid the only acknowledgment you get is when your payment clears the bank. That’s not really good enough is it, but that is what they’ll do. Frequently, I might set my payments up well in advance to be paid a few days before the deadline because I want to hold on to my money. Then I sit there and go “have I done the payment yet? have I set it up and I don’t want to pay twice?” but there’s no way of knowing if you set it up unless you can go into your banking app and it shows your future payments that are coming out. Just beware there may not be a statement to know how much you’ve got to pay you’ll need to look back at your tax calculation they will not send you a bill to say here you are paying this and they won’t acknowledge receipts of your money. What you need to do is make your own notes and the vital part is that people forget, is if you made a payment on account last year. You made a payment in January and July for the next year, remember to deduct that payment before you make payment in January. The number of people that forget then overpay and then they wonder why their tax bill is so high so don’t forget to take it off. Yes, you might have another payment on account to make for the next year that’s fine but what you don’t want to do is keep building up a balance with HMRC because they won’t tell you or send a statement to say that you’ve overpaid. They like to keep hold of your money, being the cynical person that I am I think the reason why they don’t like to send statements or don’t like to send reminders is that they like you to default on payment and then they can charge you interest and penalties. So, that is my very very cynical post about if you get HMRC statements bills and receipts, have a good day! Read more of our blogs in our handy knowledgebase
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The information contained in this document is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavour to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is provided or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation. Louise Herrington, Herrington Accounting Services t/as Performance Accountancy disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article.
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