"Payment due by 31 January 2013" shock!

dllive

Ive been diligently filling in my SA form. After I completed it I got to Step 6 "View your calculation". This is the screen that shows how much tax you owe. There are 4 figures on this screen:

Total tax, Class 4 NIC and Student loan due for 2011-12
First payment on account for 2012-13
Payment due by 31 January 2013
Second payment on account for 2012-13 will be due by 31 July 201

The 3rd figure (Payment due by 31 January 2013) is much much bigger than I was expecting to pay on the 31st Jan. I phoned HMRC and a helpful chap said that I should reduce this figure by 50% to gauge what I actually have to pay on the 31st Jan (I presume because I pay 6 months on account). He said that once I submit the SA form, I would get a letter 3 days later confirming this reduced amount. When I said that he must have to field these calls all the time he agreed that the wording is really bad.

Has anyone else heard of this!? Why say that I have to pay X amount on the 31st Jan if this is not the case!? Have I got my wires crossed? (I hope not because if that figure is correct then I will find paying out all that money in one go very hard!)

ceeforcat

The third figure is the total of the first and the second less any amounts that you paid in respect of your 2011/12 tax in January 2012 and July 2012. If this is your first return you must pay the total of the first two in January 2013.

cotswoldaccountant

The SA "view your calculation" page does state that payments on account already made for 2011-12 are not taken into account. So the figure that you see as "due by 31 January 2013" is the full tax bill for 2011-12 plus the first payment on account for 2012-13. You need to deduct the two 2011-12 payments on account already paid to get the actual amount you will need to pay. When you receive a statement from HMRC (as you were told, a few days or so after your return is submitted) this will automatically deduct the POAs for 2011-12 from the amount due.

dllive

Thanks - I completely missed the text saying "This amount does not take into account any 2011-12 payments on account you may have already made". I got as far as the 'payment due' figure in bold and had a panic attack!

dllive

hhhmmm, Ive just reduced the 2 amounts that I paid HMRC on Jan and July 2012 and the 'payment due on 31 Jan' is still almost twice as much as I was expecting. Ill obviously go over all my entries again to make sure Ive entered everything correctly, but am I missing anything obvious?

ceeforcat

Can you state:

1) Total liability for 2011/12 tax year.
2) Payment on account that you made in July 2012