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Self Assessment Pay Your Bill Checklist
When your Self Assessment tax is due, how payments on account work, the ways to pay HMRC, and what happens if you pay late. Built around the 31 January 2027 deadline.
Next deadline: 31 January 2027. Your 2025/26 return, your balancing payment for 2025/26 and your first payment on account for 2026/27 are all due that day.
What’s Included
- Key payment dates for the 2025/26 tax year.
- How payments on account work and who has to make them.
- Ways to pay HMRC and which are fastest.
- What late filing and late payment cost, and what to do if you cannot pay in full.
Why This Matters for 2026/27
- The first payment on account for next year is due on the same day as your balancing payment, so the 31 January bill is often bigger than people expect.
- Payments on account catch many first-year self-employed people out because they pay tax for two years in one go.
- Penalties stack up quickly: a £100 late filing fee, interest, and 5% charges at 30 days, 6 months and 12 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
For the 2025/26 tax year, your online return and your balancing payment are due on 31 January 2027. If you make payments on account, the first one for 2026/27 is also due then and the second is due on 31 July 2027.
Usually people whose last Self Assessment bill was more than £1,000 and who had less than 80% of their tax collected at source. Each payment is half of the previous year's bill.
Contact HMRC before the deadline and ask about a Time to Pay arrangement, which lets you spread the bill over instalments.
It is free to download. It is general guidance, not tax advice. Dates and penalties can change, so check GOV.UK for your own situation.