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Self-Assessment Countdown: Your Plan for the 31 January Deadline

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By John Thomas, Senior Accountant The 31 January deadline feels a long way off in October, and that is exactly why it catches so many people out. For the 2025-26 tax year, your self-assessment return must be filed and the balancing payment made by 31 January 2027. Miss it and the penalties start automatically: £100 the day after the deadline, more after three months, more after six. Add payments on account into the mix, and January becomes the most expensive month of the year for the unprepared. Here is how to plan it properly, starting now. The three things due on 31 January It helps to separate what is actually due, because people conflate them: The tax return itself. Your online self-assessment return for 2025-26 must be submitted by 31 January 2027. Paper returns had an earlier deadline of 31 October, which has now passed for this year. The balancing payment. Whatever tax you still owe for 2025-26 after PAYE, CIS deductions and payments on account must be paid by 31 January...
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Self Assessment overpayments: how refunds and offsets work

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Few things feel as satisfying as discovering you have paid too much tax. Few things are as confusing as working out what happens next. If your Self Assessment account shows a credit balance, HMRC will either repay it to you or offset it against something else you owe, and which one happens is not always your choice. Here is how the system works and where people trip up. Where overpayments come from Overpayments are more common than most people expect. The biggest source is payments on account. If your bill for last year was, say, 8,000 pounds, HMRC asked you to pay 4,000 pounds in January and 4,000 pounds in July as advance payments toward this year's bill. If this year's actual bill turns out to be lower, perhaps because your income dropped, the difference sits in your account as a credit. Other common causes: CIS deductions taken by contractors at 20 or 30 per cent when your final liability is lower; income taxed at source through PAYE on a second job alongside your Sel...
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Self assessment payments on account, explained simply

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  Every January, thousands of self-employed people get a shock when they open their HMRC statement. They expected one tax bill, but HMRC wants half of next year's bill too. These are payments on account, and once you understand the logic behind them, they are straightforward to plan for. Here is what they are, who pays them, and how to avoid the January surprise. What payments on account are Payments on account are advance payments towards your next self assessment bill. HMRC assumes that next year's tax will be roughly the same as this year's, so it collects half of the current year's liability in advance, in two instalments. It is not an extra tax. It is the same tax, paid earlier. When your actual bill for the year is finalised, the payments on account are deducted from it, and you pay or are refunded the difference. Think of it like this. If your self assessment bill for 2025/26 is 6,000 pounds, HMRC will ask for two payments on account of 3,000 pounds each towar...
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Self assessment registration: the 5 October deadline has passed, here is what to do now

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Self assessment registration: the 5 October deadline has passed, here is what to do now If you started working for yourself, took on freelance work, or began letting out a property during the 2025/26 tax year, and you have not yet told HMRC, then the 5 October 2026 registration deadline for self assessment has now passed. Take a breath. This is fixable, and you can still register today. But the missed deadline should be treated as a warning, because the next dates in the calendar carry real penalties, and the earlier you get yourself set up, the less painful the whole process will be. You can still register now, so do it this week If you are self-employed, you register with HMRC as a sole trader through their online service. If you need to file because of rental income or other untaxed income rather than self-employment, the SA1 form is the usual route. Either way, you will need a Government Gateway user ID, and HMRC will post you a Unique Taxpayer Reference, which can take a few we...
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