When do I pay tax for self assessment?

There should usually be at most two dates on which you will pay personal tax under self assessment. These will be 31 January and 31 July each year.

The payment due on 31 January annually will be any tax owing for the previous tax year. In addition, you will need to make a payment on account of your tax for the current tax year. The latter amount will be payable again on 31 July following. So by this date you will have paid the same tax on account as your liability for the previous year. This is one of the principles of self assessment - that your tax is assumed to be the same year on year.

This is best shown by example. Let's assume that your first year under self assessment is 2007/08 (i.e. the year ended 5 April 2008). Any tax due for that year is payable on 31 January 2009. We will assume the liability is £800. We will further assume that for 2008/09 your tax liability is calculated at £900. Below is a table setting out your tax liabilities:-

If your income increases, then you can expect large tax liabilities in January.

There are de minimis limits such that where the tax due in January is below a fixed amount or less than a proportion of tax paid, there will be no need to make payments on account as well or in July annually.

Dated : 13/02/2009