Deadlines and admin
Payments on account: calculator and dates
Two advance payments towards next year’s bill, each half of this year’s, due on 31 January and 31 July.
Payments on account are HMRC’s way of collecting next year’s Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance in advance. Each one is half of the bill you just paid through Self Assessment, and they fall due on 31 January and 31 July. You do not make them if that bill was under £1,000, or if more than 80 % of your tax was already taken at source, through PAYE for example. Student loan repayments and Capital Gains Tax are never part of them. The first year is the hard one: a sole trader with £35,000 of profit in 2026/27 owes £5,832, and on 31 January 2028 pays that plus a first payment on account of £2,916, then £2,916 again on 31 July. Type last year’s figures below to see what is due and what the next January will look like.
Payments on account: what is due and when
Each payment on account
£3,000
| 31 January and 31 July | £3,000 each |
| Balancing payment next January | £1,000 |
| Next January in total | £4,500 |
Figures checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Who has to make them
HMRC sets payments on account automatically when it processes your return. Two tests decide. The first is the size of the bill: Income Tax and Class 4 paid through Self Assessment of £1,000 or more. The second is how much was collected at source: if more than 80 % of your tax for the year came through PAYE, on a salary or a pension, no payments on account are set, because most of next year’s tax will be collected the same way. A sole trader with no job in England, Wales or Northern Ireland passes the first test from about £16,500 of profit and never meets the second.
The first two years, worked through
Take three sole traders who start in 2026/27 and whose profit stays the same the following year. The table shows what leaves their account on the two dates that follow the end of their first tax year.
| Profit | 2026/27 bill | Each payment on account | 31 January 2028 | 31 July 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £1,932 | £966 | £2,898 | £966 |
| £35,000 | £5,832 | £2,916 | £8,748 | £2,916 |
| £60,000 | £13,889 | £6,944 | £20,833 | £6,944 |
In the second year the pattern settles: if the profit does not change, the two payments on account cover the whole bill, the balancing payment is nil, and each January you pay only the next first instalment. When profit rises, a balancing payment appears on 31 January and the payments on account for the next year rise with it.
Reducing them, and the trap
If trade has dropped, you can claim to reduce both payments, online or with form SA303. Do it before the July instalment if you can. The risk is in the other direction: reduce them too far and HMRC charges interest on the shortfall from the original due dates once the return is filed. HMRC’s late payment interest is set at the Bank of England base rate plus 4 % (HMRC interest rates).
Bill under £1,000: no payments on account. First year: bill plus half again on 31 January. Steady profit: two equal halves, nothing more in January. Rising profit: a balancing payment on top.
Paying them
The amounts appear on your Self Assessment statement and in your online account. You can pay by bank transfer, by debit card through GOV.UK or with a budget payment plan that spreads the next bill over weekly or monthly direct debits. Deadlines are at midnight on 31 January and 31 July; the Self Assessment deadlines page lists the rest of the calendar, and the tax to put aside calculator turns the bill into a share of each invoice.