SA payments on account

slopemaster

Hello
I'm fairly new to SA and 2014-15 was the first time I went over the threshold of 1000 tax due and so they asked for payment on account for this year.
I knew taxable income 2015-16 would be lower so I asked not to pay and they agreed.
Sent in my forms for 2015-16, and they've sent the assessment back saying I owe £340 and should have paid it already (Jan and July 2016).

But they owe me £300 against the tax I already paid for 2014-15.

So, my Q is, to avoid getting charged interest/penalties, do I need to pay this now and then wait for them to refund the £300? Or can I just pay the £40?

Although the due dates are given as Jan and July 2016, they haven't actually asked for payment yet but said they will send details of how to pay 'nearer the time'. (Time machine?)

I tried ringing but the person I spoke to in the call centre did not understand the question.

[Deleted User]

What they will do is adjust the payments on account for 2015/16 to £170 each - due in January and July 2016. Interest will run on each.

I don't understand the part about owing you tax for 2014/15 - how is that so? If it has remained in your account without being repaid you should indeed only pay £40.

slopemaster

[Deleted User] wrote:

I don't understand the part about owing you tax for 2014/15 - how is that so? If it has remained in your account without being repaid you should indeed only pay £40.

No, they're not showing it as due to me yet.
I put the claim in recently - along with my 2015/16 tax return.
But they havent responded to that part yet...

[Deleted User]

I think that I would pay the full amount of £340. Your 2014/15 adjustment used to be regarded as a 'stand alone' claim but perhaps some of the current HMRC guys and gals on here would know definitively.

polymaff

You really need to clarify what the £300 is all about. If you say that they owe you, but it hasn't shown up on your statement - then they don't owe you. More to the point, you owe them interest running from 31st January and increasing every day. The only way I've met of paying this in full is to get HMRC to quote the outstanding right now - on the telephone - and then get them to give you the telephone number through which you can make a debit card payment - that same day.

Incidentally, you have a right to ask for PoA to be reduced - even to zero - but, as you've seen, it is not a win-win situation to reduce to zero.