HMRC 31 July 2026 Self Assessment deadline explained

If payments on account sounds like the kind of tax phrase nobody would use in ordinary conversation, you are not alone. HMRC is reminding Self Assessment taxpayers that the next key date is 31 July 2026, when many people need to make their second payment on account for the 2025 to 2026 tax year. Why the reminder matters is simple: lots of people think January was the end of the story. It was not. HMRC says millions should use the next few weeks to check what they owe, decide how they want to pay and, if necessary, put support in place before the deadline arrives.

What this means in plain English is that payments on account are advance payments towards your next Self Assessment bill, not a brand new charge. HMRC explains that they are usually split into two instalments, with each one worth half of the tax you owed last year. The standard deadlines are midnight on 31 January and midnight on 31 July. You usually do not have to make these payments if your last tax bill was less than £1,000, or if more than 80% of the tax you owed was already collected outside Self Assessment, such as through your tax code or tax already deducted by a bank.

The practical bit is this: HMRC says the quickest route is its app, where more than 110,000 Self Assessment payments have been made since April 2026. Since the app was introduced in January 2022, nearly 2 million Self Assessment taxpayers have used it to pay, and it also lets you set reminders and look back at your payment history. You can also pay through GOV.UK, and the GOV.UK page called Pay your Self Assessment tax bill sets out the official payment routes. If you like keeping admin in one place, the app is useful not only for paying on the day, but for checking what you have already done.

HMRC chief customer officer Myrtle Lloyd says the department knows Self Assessment is not always straightforward and wants people to choose the payment option that works for them. If paying the full amount in one go feels difficult, HMRC says customers can set up monthly or weekly payment plans to spread the cost. Any money already paid through one of those plans counts towards your next Self Assessment bill, which can make the deadline feel more manageable. There is another option too: if you expect this year's bill to be lower than last year's, you can ask HMRC through GOV.UK to reduce your payments on account.

One of the more confusing parts of the system is that you can make your 31 July payment on account before you have filed your tax return. That can seem back to front, but it is how the timetable works. Filing early is still useful, because it tells you sooner what you owe and gives you more time to plan. For the 2025 to 2026 tax year, the deadline to submit your Self Assessment return and pay any remaining tax is 31 January 2027. HMRC says there is online help on GOV.UK for people who need support completing the return, so this is a good moment to sort the paperwork before January becomes a rush.

There is also a helpful change for families dealing with the High Income Child Benefit Charge. HMRC says that from mid-July 2026, around 300,000 Self Assessment customers will see their own or their partner's Child Benefit payment information pre-populated in the online tax return. What that means for you is less manual entry in one part of the form. It does not remove the need to check your return carefully, but it should make the process quicker and easier to get right.

A separate deadline sits just behind this one for some self-employed readers and landlords. Sole traders and landlords with annual turnover above £50,000 are now required to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which means sending quarterly updates to HMRC through compatible software. If you are in that group, the first quarterly submission deadline for the 2026 to 2027 tax year is 7 August 2026. That is only a week after 31 July, so it helps to think of them as two different jobs: one deadline is about paying tax, while the other is about reporting income and expenses through the new digital system.

HMRC is also using this reminder to push some basic but important housekeeping. If your name, address or circumstances have changed, if you are no longer self-employed, if your business has closed, or if you no longer need to do Self Assessment, HMRC says you should tell it directly rather than assume someone else will do it for you. New users signing up to HMRC digital services are now being asked to create a GOV.UK One Login, which is meant to let people prove their identity once and use it across government services. Existing users should keep using Government Gateway until HMRC contacts them with clear guidance and notice. HMRC also warns people to be alert to scams: do not trust unexpected messages, do not click links in suspicious texts or emails, and never share your sign-in details.