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HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

Practical Issues
staffordian
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HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#416829

Postby staffordian » June 2nd, 2021, 1:42 pm

I've just logged in to my HMRC account to settle my tax bill for 2020-21.

The page confirmed the amount to pay (I filed the returm in early April) and had a button to pay this amount.

I entered card details etc and clicked a Pay Now button and the page changed to one saying Make a Payment, but all the page had was a large grey box in which it said something like Content failed to load. Contact site owner to correct problem or words to that effect.

My bank shows nothing pending so I'm assuming the payment has failed.

Has anyone else had similar problems, or is it just me they don't like? :)

For info, I'm using a Samsung android tablet, running Android version 11 (the latest version?) with a Chrome browser.

TIA

Staffordian

Edit: Forgot to mention there was a link to reporting a problem with the page, which I've done, but don't expect a speedy reply. It suggested two days but I'm not holding my breath...

staffordian
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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417517

Postby staffordian » June 5th, 2021, 7:36 pm

Looks like I'm the only one with this issue, or the only one paying my tax this early :D

Surprisingly, I had a quick, though entirely unhelpful response the next day. It said...

Hello Staffordian,

Thank you for contacting the Digital Customer Support Team.

Please accept my apologies for the issues you are having in making a payment online.

HMRC are aware of an ongoing problem with cards where the card number begins 450875, 498824 or 535710. If you have attempted to pay with one of these cards and have been unsuccessful you will need to use a different card or contact your bank to report the issue. If payment has been unsuccessful using cards with different card numbers, please can provide details of the first 6 and last 4 numbers of the card, the amount you were trying to pay and the time and date of the attempt.

As this payment needs to be made, if you are still unable to make a payment online please visit our website for other payment methods: Pay HMRC*

Kind Regards,

Dean
Digital Customer Support Team


*This is a link to an HMRC payments info page

So basically their system is so cr@p it can't process a debit card payment from a Co-op Bank account, and presumably several others too (mine starts with 498824) and they suggest I report this problem to my bank!! FWIW, the same card has worked fine every year up to this one.

I've faffed around and set up a one off direct debit instead.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417537

Postby GeoffF100 » June 5th, 2021, 9:10 pm

I have just filed my tax return online. I am now waiting "up to 72 hours". I hope I do not hit the same problem after that. I tried to set up a direct debit many years ago. I was hit with "set up a payment plan". I think I must have run out of expletives at that point. I was expecting to just press a button, enter my debit card details and subsequently have all my tax bills paid automatically on the due date. That would be too easy for them. I was told on the old Fool site that paying by debit card was the method that worked. It is good to hear that you managed to get a one off direct debit working. That is better than nothing!

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417538

Postby GPhelan » June 5th, 2021, 9:16 pm

Rather than 'pulling' the money into HMRC by giving them a Debit card number or setting up a direct debit, I 'push' money towards them using a direct transfer from my bank to their account - in my case to HMRC Shipley. This has worked for me over many years.

staffordian
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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417561

Postby staffordian » June 5th, 2021, 10:34 pm

GPhelan wrote:Rather than 'pulling' the money into HMRC by giving them a Debit card number or setting up a direct debit, I 'push' money towards them using a direct transfer from my bank to their account - in my case to HMRC Shipley. This has worked for me over many years.


I toyed with this option but wondered if their apparent incompetence might have lead to the money floating around in a suspense account somewhere rather than being allocated to my tax account. It's reassuring to know it works ok.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417584

Postby Alaric » June 6th, 2021, 12:18 am

staffordian wrote:I toyed with this option but wondered if their apparent incompetence might have lead to the money floating around in a suspense account somewhere rather than being allocated to my tax account. It's reassuring to know it works ok.


It works provided you quote the tax UTR with a K at the end as part of the narrative. As you say it can lurk in a suspense account if they cannot identify who it relates to. The phone line seemed to understand how to deal with the problem when I had a payment that I could see leaving my account but remained uncredited according to HMRC.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417597

Postby bluedonkey » June 6th, 2021, 7:29 am

For years I've paid my self assessment tax by bank transfer. In other words, logging in to my bank a/c and making the transfer from there. Never had a problem with the money being correctly allocated. As said above, quoting the 10 digit UTR is essential.

staffordian
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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417601

Postby staffordian » June 6th, 2021, 7:49 am

Yes, this UTR 'K' number seems to be key; it is asked for when setting up the direct debit as well as in a scenario where you push the payment to them.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#417685

Postby SteelCamel » June 6th, 2021, 2:24 pm

staffordian wrote:Looks like I'm the only one with this issue, or the only one paying my tax this early :D
So basically their system is so cr@p it can't process a debit card payment from a Co-op Bank account, and presumably several others too (mine starts with 498824) and they suggest I report this problem to my bank!! FWIW, the same card has worked fine every year up to this one.

It sounds to me like the issue is with the authentication system. I'm sure you'll have seen when you make payments that a page pops up and either does nothing and closes or asks you to authenticate in some way (password, send you a text, use an app etc). As this is run by the bank (or their processor on their behalf) there's nothing really HMRC can do about it - they're asking the bank to authenticate the payment, and the bank is giving a blank page which never says yes or no, so the payment doesn't go through. Other cards will go through as they have a different authentication page, which apparently works OK.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#419034

Postby modellingman » June 12th, 2021, 12:54 pm

Alaric wrote:
staffordian wrote:I toyed with this option but wondered if their apparent incompetence might have lead to the money floating around in a suspense account somewhere rather than being allocated to my tax account. It's reassuring to know it works ok.


It works provided you quote the tax UTR with a K at the end as part of the narrative. As you say it can lurk in a suspense account if they cannot identify who it relates to. The phone line seemed to understand how to deal with the problem when I had a payment that I could see leaving my account but remained uncredited according to HMRC.


My experience was similar. I paid from a different bank account to the one I usually use and missed one of the digits out of my UTR when specifying the payment reference. I phoned them up to explain the problem. It took several weeks to sort out did not require further intervention from me. Hardest part was tracking down the correct phone number for HMRC. Although the payment was not assigned to my self assessment account until after the payment deadline, there was no penalty or interest applied.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424167

Postby feder1 » July 2nd, 2021, 10:49 am

Yet another problem for me using the self assessment payment system which is unbelievably cretinous to say the least.

After some faffing about I made two payments using the debit card, successfully. One after the other.

Then I tried to make payment number three using identical input data and thrice it was rejected saying "address on card doesn,t match records etc."

Rubbish. It had just accepted two similar card and address details.

I,ll try tomorrow I suppose.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424176

Postby Lootman » July 2nd, 2021, 11:02 am

GPhelan wrote:Rather than 'pulling' the money into HMRC by giving them a Debit card number or setting up a direct debit, I 'push' money towards them using a direct transfer from my bank to their account - in my case to HMRC Shipley. This has worked for me over many years.

And if we are discussing "old school" methods of paying taxes, you can still post a cheque to HMRC.

By paying the entire amount early (June this year; usually in May) there are no other payments for me to make for a year.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424191

Postby yorkshirelad1 » July 2nd, 2021, 11:40 am

As others have done, I've paid my self assessment in Jan and July by logging in to my online banking, and sending the funds to HMRC Shipley BACS details. This seems to have worked fairly well, and is usually same day (I used to use a debit card payment, but have found BACS more convenient of the two).

This year, I am going to try direct debit(*) (i.e. set up the direct debit mandate for new, set up the date and the amount of the next direct debit payment). I've given myself some leeway of a few days for 31 July, and am waiting for see the direct debit notification appear (sometimes my bank sends me notification of new direct debits and sometimes the direct debits are visible in online banking under regular payments). If it works, it will be quite handy i.e. set up the direct debit each Jan & July mid-month for an end-of-month date and watch the payment get processed later in the month. But I'm not holding my breath and am ready to pounce with the online banking "push" payment method. Equally, if HMRC give confirmation that I've set up the DD for a given date, and they don't process it correctly, then they might have a hard time levying a late payment charge against me, and I've got the protection of the DD system if the payment goes pear-shaped. I'll report back.

*: setting up a direct debit for paying SA tax needs access to the Government Gateway (GG) and the SA system which takes a little setting up. I've never bothered with the GG in the past, which is one reason I didn't bother with DD for SA up to now but I had to get to grips with the GG this year to check Nat Ins/State pension record, so decided to move into paying SA via DD and setup via the GG.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424370

Postby feder1 » July 3rd, 2021, 9:27 am

Having unsuccessfully failed to make a payment using two different debit cards I resorted to bank transfer which I hope will work.

Both debit cards said "address didn,t match..." despite the first card having made two good payments minutes prior.

I gave their site questionaire the worst possible survey since it is so aweful.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424375

Postby Dod101 » July 3rd, 2021, 9:49 am

I am jumping in late so the point may have been covered but my bank (HSBC) has HMRC as one of its payees for my current account so I have always used that and simply and easily paid by bank transfer via internet banking. never had any problem.

Dod

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424395

Postby bluedonkey » July 3rd, 2021, 11:14 am

Dod101 wrote:I am jumping in late so the point may have been covered but my bank (HSBC) has HMRC as one of its payees for my current account so I have always used that and simply and easily paid by bank transfer via internet banking. never had any problem.

Dod

Same here. I shudder at the thought of HMRC having a direct debit mandate over my bank account!

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424406

Postby staffordian » July 3rd, 2021, 11:39 am

I cancelled the direct debit mandate after the payment was claimed.

If I need to make a payment next year I'll try the card again and if that's still broken, send a payment from my account.

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424527

Postby GeoffF100 » July 3rd, 2021, 9:17 pm

I successfully paid online using a Santander Mastercard debit card on 30th June. I had no problems at all. It worked as usual.

staffordian
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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424557

Postby staffordian » July 3rd, 2021, 10:50 pm

GeoffF100 wrote:I successfully paid online using a Santander Mastercard debit card on 30th June. I had no problems at all. It worked as usual.

Was it a card in one of the number series which HMRC knew were giving problems?

"HMRC are aware of an ongoing problem with cards where the card number begins 450875, 498824 or 535710"

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Re: HMRC Self Assessment Payment Problem

#424573

Postby GeoffF100 » July 4th, 2021, 7:06 am

staffordian wrote:
GeoffF100 wrote:I successfully paid online using a Santander Mastercard debit card on 30th June. I had no problems at all. It worked as usual.

Was it a card in one of the number series which HMRC knew were giving problems?

"HMRC are aware of an ongoing problem with cards where the card number begins 450875, 498824 or 535710"

No, it was not one of those.


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