Paying tax by direct debit

One of the many ways that payments can be made to HMRC is by using a direct debit. The direct debit can be set up online.

You can pay your tax bill using direct debit if you have an online account with HMRC for:

• Self-assessment
• Employers’ PAYE and National Insurance
• Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions
• VAT
• Corporation Tax
• Machine Games Duty
• Soft Drinks Industry Levy

You can also make miscellaneous payments (if your payment reference begins with ‘X’) if you have an online account with HMRC for one of these taxes.

In addition, you must be the authorised signatory on the account you want to make payments from, and it must be a UK bank account.

When making a payment for Self-Assessment you should use your 11-character payment reference. This is your 10-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) followed by the letter ‘K’.

It is also possible to pay HMRC by other methods including bank transfer, cheques, corporate credit cards, corporate debit cards and personal debit cards. The use of corporate cards is subject to a fee. Payment by personal debit cards is currently fee-free. There is also no charge for payment by direct debit, bank transfer or cheque. HMRC has not accepted personal credit cards since January 2018 when credit card surcharges on personal credit cards were banned.