Your Self Assessment statement tells you:

• what tax you’ve paid - including the payments on account you’ve made
• what tax is due - including any payments on account for the next tax year
• other things like penalties and interest

You’re usually sent a statement:

• after you’ve sent in your tax return
• following a change or correction to your tax return

Use HMRC's Business Tax dashboard for an overview of tax you paid and owe.

Sending your tax return close to the deadline

You usually pay any tax that is due by 31 January. If you send your tax return too close to this deadline, you may not get your statement on time to tell you what to pay.

To make sure you pay the right amount of tax you may need to work out your balancing payment and what payments on account you need to make for the next tax year. To do this check your tax statement online or look through your tax records.

You can pay HM Revenue & Customs in different ways, including direct debit and internet banking.

Tax calculation SA302

You can print off a tax calculation SA302 when you do your online tax return. You might need a copy as proof of income, eg for a mortgage lender.

‘Payments on account’ are advance payments towards the tax bill you’ll owe for that tax year.

You usually make them if you send a tax return and the tax due is over £1,000 and 80% or less has been collected at source. For example, through your tax code.

If the payments on account you’ve made are higher than your tax bill, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will refund you the difference.

What and when to pay

Each payment is half your previous year's tax bill. Your payments are due on 31 January and 31 July.

Example
You're self-employed and the tax due for 2013 to 2014 tax year is £1,500. For the 2014 to 2015 tax year you make your first payment on account of £750 by 31 January 2015 and your second of £750 by 31 July 2015.

When you do your tax return online you’ll be shown a ‘tax calculation’ (it’s sent to you in the post if you do the return on paper). This tells you the tax due, the next payment on account instalment and when these are to be paid.

Example
Your 2013 to 2014 tax year calculation will show you the tax due for that tax year and the first payment on account for the 2014 to 2015 tax year.

If you’ve already made some payments on account towards the amount due, these won't be shown. You can see these on your Self Assessment statement instead.

How to pay

You can pay your tax bill in different ways, including direct debit and internet banking.

You can ask HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to reduce your payments on account if you know your tax bill is going to be lower than last year. To do this you can either:

• log in to your HMRC online account
• send form SA303 to your local tax office

Download 'Form SA303, reduce your payments on account' (PDF, 300KB)

HMRC can charge you interest and penalties if you end up paying too little.

If you think your payments on account need to change, check your paperwork to see which HMRC office to contact about changing them.

The amount of tax due after you've paid any payments on account is called a 'balancing payment'.

You must pay your balance by midnight 31 January after the end of the tax year.

Example
The 2013 to 2014 tax year ended 5 April 2014 so your balancing payment is due by midnight 31 January 2015.