If you are self-employed, or registered for self-assessment, we are approaching “that” time of the year: your second instalment on account for 2016-17, is due for payment at the end of the month, 31 July 2017.
Any payment due will be based on your self-assessment liability for the previous tax year (2015-16) so it is worth underlining that this is a payment on account, and even though it is the second you will have made for 2016-17, it may not cover your total liability for this tax year.
There are two possibilities:
- That your income or profits have increased during 2016-17, and that as your payments on account (January and July 2017) were based on your previous year’s income, you may have underpaid tax and NIC. If this is so any balance outstanding will fall due for payment 31 January 2018.
- That your income and profits have fallen during 2016-17. In this case if we leave your payments on account with no change, you will likely have overpaid tax and be due a refund.
If the second option applies in your case, it may be worth calculating what your payments on account should be, based on your estimated, lower income for 2016-17. This may well reduce or perhaps eliminate any second payment on account due at the end of this month.
If you think your income or profits have decreased during 2016-17 (or the accounts ending in that tax year) please call so that we can deal with a formal application to have your payments of account reduced for 2016-17.
