Self employed workers who believe they may struggle to pay tax this year should consider arranging an affordable payment plan, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has said.

The report comes ahead of the 31 October 2021 paper Self Assessment deadline.

While taxpayers are not required to pay tax until 31 January 2022, the coronavirus pandemic may have impacted their ability to pay in full.

If you fall into this category, you may be able to set up your own affordable monthly payment plan by using HMRC’s self-serve Time to Pay facility – enabling you to spread out your Income Tax and National Insurance bill for the 2020/21 tax year and any deferred ‘payments on account’ that were due in July 2020.

You can only use the facility if you owe £30,000 or less, you do not have any other payment plans in place, and your tax returns are up to date.

Commenting on the report, Myrtle Lloyd, Director General for Customer Services, said: “We want to help people get their tax returns right by making sure they are prepared and have everything they need before they start their Self Assessment.

“If anyone is worried about paying their tax bill, support is available – search ‘time to pay’ on GOV.UK.”

Additional information

The online Self Assessment deadline is 31 January 2022 – the same day tax is due.

If you received a Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant throughout the pandemic, it should be declared in the tax return for the tax year it was paid.

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