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I never have the cash halfway through the year to pay any tax in advance.
Your payments on account are tax due on earnings you have already received, so it's not "in advance" unless for some reason you have negligible revenue from April 6th to January 31st and then make it all up in the remaining nine weeks.
AFAIK, the only way legitimately to avoid payments on account is to demonstrate an annual tax liability of under £1k. If you asked them to reduce your payments on account (possibly to zero, but other options are available) based on an expectation of reduced profits compared with the previous year but then showed similar or higher profits in your return, they are not really being cunts when they imply (by way of interest on "missed" payments) that you should have made the payments on account.
£300 seems like a lot of interest for an annual liability of £6k, have they given you a penalty too or does that figure cover more than one year?
gbj_tester-
The actual interest owed is £200, but they have added something and I'm trying to work out what it is. I have paid them £6800, but only £6700 is showing as paid. I called them today and the guy couldn't see the discrepancy, it was incredibly frustrating.
I request to reduce my payments on account to zero every year, because yes my income is erratic. Sometimes I earn most of my income in 6 months, then live off it while I make art, which may or may not sell. Income varies between 20-40k. If I made these payments on account I would not be able to invest in potential projects, tools or workshop space. This is the first year they have refused my request, and I didn't realise, so here I am.
I've also had a spinal injury which cost about £3k for an operation, and chronic pain since then, so maybe they're not cunts but the whole thing feels unfair.
William.
Payments on account for freelancers who complete self assesment: I request not to make these every year. Usually they don't chase me. I never have the cash halfway through the year to pay any tax in advance.
This year, even though I'm self employed, I'm paying 20% tax at source due to a new scheme to stop construction workers avoiding tax. (CIS) So if it was hard to make payments on account before, now I definitely cant.
I've just paid my approx 6k tax bill for 21/22, in time for jan 31, but HMRC say I owe them £300 in interest for late payments on account.
What are my chances of getting this cancelled? I have no cash, am owed approx 4k by contractors, and I think they are cunts and its totally unjustified. Any advice very welcome.