I am submitting a self assessment for my wife, I used the same information as previous tax returns by her old accountant, but clearly we made a mistake somewhere.
Last year she was made to pay her tax bill twice, one payment of roughly the amount we expected to pay and then payments on account, and this year was the first year she was asked to pay on account. It was rough but we understood why we had to essentially pay 2 tax bills, in Jan 2024, she was asked only for the 2022-2023 tax bill.
In Jan 2025, we were given the balancing payment to pay as her full tax bill but also that same amount split in half to be paid in Jan 2025 and July 2025. Again, understandable, we figured we were on top of tax at this point and balancing payments would be based on small increases in income.
This year (to be bpaid Jan 2026) for some reason her balancing payment is once again the full amount we expect to pay tax for and not an adjustment or balancing figure.
Her earnings this year are about 10% higher than last year, but it does not push her into a new tax bracket. Surely the balancing figure shouldn't be higher than the 2 on account payments due, or am I missing something here?
When I put her earnings minus deductions into a tax calculator, it tracks with previous years tax bills, it's a bit higher but not outrageous.
Can anyone tell me what we are missing, are we expected to pay the entire tax bil as a balancing paymentl and on account payments every year? It feels a lot like paying 2 tax bills.
If anyone can tell me what I've done wrong it would be helpful.
Filling the assesment out was easy as she has 1 income figure and an easily calculated and small deductible figure. The amount of taxable income was clear and the calculator was clear on the tax amount.
When you submit a tax return, it won't include the payments you've already made on account. Your actual amount owed will be shown in your account 3 days later once it's been processed.
Essentially, it will be the amount shown on your calculation, minus the 2 payments on account you've already made.
Came to say the same as this, spot on.
Thank you for the confirmation! Happy to hear that it will be recalculated and hopefully see a less daunting figure in a few days!
!thanks
Ok this is promising news, so if I'm not mistaking you, in 3 days (it did just say 72 hours so I'm going to check perhaps just after Xmas) it should recalculate the balancing payment?
That's very reassuring and I hope thisnis the case, if you are correct I can't thank you enough. Was stressful enough last year to find 2 tax bills but can't do it again!
Yeh, your tax statement will show the amount remaining owed (or even, due back to you!) and it's due date.
They really should do a better job of making that clear, because I remember being nervous too the first time I submitted a return after having to make payments on account.
Yeah I just did the calculations and the amount the balancing payment should end up at completely tracks with her 10% increased earnings this past tax year, so it suddenly clicked into place along with your advice and my own calculations.
My working out to confirm your info to be absolutely bang on is;
I took the balancing payment that they quoted when submitting, subtracted the 2 on account payments from Jan and July this year and the balancing payment remaining is 100% fair and tracks entirely with being the taxable amount on her increased earnings
Ahhh a sigh of relief for this incredibly tense and stressed household. Honestly this has been so helpful, I felt that since we planned to call and query it early Jan that we may have carried that around over us all through the end of the year.
And yeah, 100% HMRC should make the explanations a bit more ELI5 as some of us are self assessing to save money and have more time to work on it as well as independency. I googled so many different questions regarding this and nothing was as concise, quick and clear as your advice.
I don't mean to be rude but... it is made really blindingly obvious. It's explained on the page where it shows the figure. You have to just be blindly clicking through pages without a care in the world to miss it, and I'm not sure that's the best way to be navigating self assessment.