Payments on account not showing on new tax return

Weave

Hi

Help with payments on account for my tax return.

I am just doing my tax return and when I get to then end it tells me I have to pay (lets say) £6k income tax which is the total due for this year.
What I don't understand is that last year I paid my tax due (Lets say £3k) at end of Jan plus a further £1.5k and then a further £1.5k in July. I thought these POA where towards my tax bill due now so should leave me owing £6k less £3k paid already so I should pay them £3k balancing payment and then a new POA of £3k towards next year.

The return I am doing now makes no reference to the previous POA.

Have I totally misunderstood this or should I be entering the POA somewhere on the return? Any assistance would be appreciated.


Thanks

Tarasam

The online return does not make any reference at all to POA's, it works seperately from the self assessment system.
So when it shows your calculation you should deduct any payments on account already made towards the year in qu.

So if it tells you to pay £6k income tax for 08/09 and you've already paid £1.5k in Jan and then a further £1.5k in July then you then you only need to pay a Balancing Payment of £3K plus any POA's for 09/10.

Hope that makes sense.

PlutoinCapricorn

Soon after you have submitted your tax return, you will get a statement in the post. This will show the actual figure owing, taking into account your POAs. If you wait at least 24 hours after submitting, you may find that your online account has updated itself.

suso

No need to enter the POA on the return, it does say when you look at the calculation that it doesn't take into any account any payments you have already made.

Simply put, you are working out your liability for the year, when you do your return.

Weave

Thanks for explaining how the POA work. Although I have been doing returns for the last 4 years this is the first one I've done with a POA.

Thanks again.

tyllwyd

I agree with you, if you are relatively new to self-assessment, if you aren't expecting it, it is very worrying to see a figure that doesn't include your POA especially if you don't realise it will take so long for it to update to the correct figure. When I'd submitted my return last week, I wanted to double check how much I would actually owe, and I searched all over the my account section for a note of how much I'd paid in advance but I couldn't find it - I was able to work it out from my previous year's tax, but it seems incredible that the HMRC system finds it so difficult just to give you a simple, quick, easy to understand summary of what you've paid, what you owe and when.

PlutoinCapricorn

I think that HMRC are behind with updating their online records: I have paid the tax due by 31st Jan: it is on my bank statement but is not showing on my account. The most recent online statement is dated Oct 2008.

It really is best to keep your own records and calculations on a spreadsheet: I certainly do. I know what I have paid and when, and have an estimate of the next amount due.