It might sound like a contradiction in terms but I beg you pay heed to this seeming impossibility. DON’T forget to make your July Payment on Account if required!!!
Bringing it back to the headline, is it because “tax” is “interesting”?
Spoiler alert…no.
Is it because “interest” is “taxing”?
Well, yes.
Purely because if you read the following and do NOTHING about it before it is too late you might end up paying a HUGE amount of interest and even some fines to HMRC.
So what’s the problem?
It comes down to Self Assessment and Payments on Account.
Remember them?
They are the ones that are estimated by the good folk at HMRC after they peer into their crystal ball and miraculously conclude that you will earn the same amount of money this year.
They then “helpfully” ask you to pay half early doors.
Now it seems a pain to many people but it does make IF you are organised with your finances.
The problem is the whacking great inflation problem right now – you might have noticed it!
That means that if you are late….the impact of the interest you pay is far bigger than usual.
Like 7% and upwards bigger – never mind the fines.
So what do you do?
Check your online account and see how much you have to pay by the 31st of July. I recommend you set up the payment for a few days BEFOREHAND just in case something crumbles. Or…you could look at doing your tax return before the 26th of July. That will give HMRC time to reevaluate how much the July 2023 payment should be. Now…it will never go up, but it could go
down if your income has changed between the two years.
