Self assessment customers to benefit from enhanced payment plans

Self assessment taxpayers are now able to benefit from enhanced payment plans and can apply online for additional support to help spread their tax bill into monthly payments.

The online payment plan service was already able to set up instalment arrangements for paying tax liabilities up to £10,000. From 1 October 2020, HMRC increased the threshold to £30,000 for self assessment customers following Chancellor’s Rishi Sunak’s announcement on 24 September 2020.

As part of that speech, the Chancellor announced that self assessment taxpayers could pay their deferred payment on account bill from July 2020, any outstanding tax owed for 2019/20 and their first payment on account for 2020/21 in monthly instalments, up to 12 months, via this self-serve tool.

Taxpayers who wish to set up their own self-serve Time to Pay arrangements must meet the following requirements:

• they have no outstanding tax returns, other tax debts or other HMRC payment plans set up
• the debt needs to be between £32 and £30,000; and
• the payment plan needs to be set up no later than 60 days after the due date of a debt.

Taxpayers using self-serve Time to Pay will be required to pay any interest on any outstanding balance from 1 February 2021.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman, said:

‘We are supporting jobs by giving more breathing space to up to 11 million self assessment taxpayers when managing their tax affairs.

‘Enhancing Time to Pay should ease the financial burdens and protect the livelihoods of these taxpayers, as they navigate the months ahead.’

HMRC is also warning taxpayers to be aware of scams claiming to be from HMRC, offering to help set up payment plans to pay any tax owed. These scams are trying to harvest taxpayers’ details, in order to steal their money.

Please contact us for advice on meeting your tax payments.