For clients with salaries or fees paid under Pay As You Earn (PAYE), with tax deducted, I have noticed problems during the last year in several cases either with incorrect tax codings or with correct codes not applied properly. This has meant in two cases that most of the earnings are kept in tax when they shouldn’t be. This gets corrected eventually through the tax return if left, but this is not a practical solution if it involves a large proportion of a client’s income.
Some problems seem to have been caused by employers moving to ‘Real Time Information’. Where you do work paid through a company’s payroll, please check any payslip carefully. If there is any change to your coding, or if the amount you receive is very different from what you expected, do let me know. It can take a while to sort out but I will do anything I can to help.

On the 2013 tax return, all taxpayers need to show whether they or their partner/spouse received child benefit up to 5 April 2013.  For those families who did, there are then further questions, including one relating to the income of your partner/spouse.  I’ll therefore be asking all my clients with children the questions to check whether they will need to pay the ‘higher income’ child benefit charge.

If you are expecting to pay tax in January but have not received a statement, the tax is still due to reach HMRC by January 31st.  I am able to see statements online, so please ask me what you need to pay if you are unsure.

The method of payment I recommend is the online system BillPay, using debit card (you can use credit card, with certain charges added).  If you select *Pay Income Tax Online* on the right, this will take you to BillPay.  You need your 10-digit tax reference (UTR) and payment card.  Payments via BillPay count as received by HMRC the moment you finish the transaction, but it takes a few days for a confirmation to be sent from Santander, or to show on the tax offices’ computer system.

If your bank or building society offers the ‘Faster Payment Service’ (FPS), HMRC can now accept payments made this way.  Under FPS, payments up to a certain limit will reach their destination by the end of the next banking day at the latest.  Once afternoon banking has finished on 26th January, the only quick way to make certain payment reaches HMRC in time is BillPay.  You can ask your bank to set up a CHAPS same-day payment but not all banks necessarily offer this and there is usually a fee.

HMRC does not now take any payment by phone.

I suggest that clients avoid paying by cheque if possible.  HMRC do not count cheque payments as received until the cheque has been presented and funds have cleared.  Any cheque payment should therefore be sent special delivery (not recorded) to arrive by 25th January at the latest, and proof of posting kept in case of delays.  If you want to pay by cheque over the Post Office counter, you will need a statement from HMRC with a payslip.

Anyone finding they are unable to pay all their tax on time should ring HMRC once the return has been submitted but before 31 January, to request to spread payment.  There are details to the right if you click on ‘Problems paying…’  HMRC will often allow payment over a few months, but do charge interest, so it is worth considering whether borrowing from a bank or another source would be less expensive.