Many customers deferred their July 2020 Payment on Account, until 31 January 2021. As these customers will need to pay the deferred amount, plus any balancing payment and first 2020/21 payment on account, by 31 January 2021, their January tax bill may be larger than usual.
Any customers who are unable to make these payments in full by January 2021 can set up a Time to Pay payment plan of up to 12 months online without needing to phone HMRC.
Taxpayers with self-assessment tax debts up to £30,000 and who need extra time to pay will be able to access this Time to Pay facility through GOV.UK and can get automatic and immediate approval. Those with self-assessment debts over £30,000, or who need longer than 12 months to repay their debt in full, will still be able to set up a Time to Pay arrangement but they will need to contact HMRC to set it up.
Self Assessment Scams
HMRC is warning people filing Self Assessment tax returns to be alert to criminals claiming to be from the department. As HMRC issues thousands of text messages and emails as part of the annual Self Assessment deadline push, it is warning people to take care to avoid being caught out by scammers.
In the last 12 months, HMRC has responded to more than 846,000 referrals from the public of suspicious HMRC contact and reported over 15,500 malicious web pages to internet service providers to be taken down. Almost 500,000 of the public referrals offered bogus tax rebates.
HMRC’s Interim Director General for Customer Services, Karl Khan, said:
We know that criminals take advantage of the Self Assessment deadline to panic customers into sharing their personal or financial details and even into paying bogus ‘tax due’.
If someone calls, emails or texts claiming to be from HMRC, offering financial help or asking for money, it might be a scam. Please take a moment to think before parting with any private information or money.”
Read more about this story on GOV.UK.
