When does the money have to be with HMRC?
9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period. Your accounting period is the year your accounts cover, so a company with a 31 May year end pays by 1 March the following year.
The date is about the money arriving, not about you clicking the button. Even a Faster Payment only "usually" lands the same or next day, so a transfer you start on the deadline itself can still be late. A Direct Debit you set up on the deadline is definitely late, because it takes days to go through. Leave yourself a few working days. More on timings below.
If you want the whole calendar in one place, including your Companies House dates, read every Corporation Tax deadline.
Why do I pay before I've even filed?
Because the two deadlines are different lengths. You pay at 9 months and 1 day. You file your Company Tax Return at 12 months. So for three months you are meant to have handed over money for a figure you have not formally told HMRC yet.
Plenty of directors read "12 months" on a letter and relax, then find out in month ten that the payment window shut. The fix is to work your figures out early. You need the number before you need the return.
Which reference do I use? (this is the bit that goes wrong)
Your company has a 17-character Corporation Tax payment reference. It looks like a run of letters and numbers, and it points at one specific year.
Two things to get right:
- It is not your UTR. Your UTR is the 10-digit number that identifies your company for tax. The 17-character reference identifies your company and the year you are paying for.
- It changes every year. Last year's reference is dead. Pay with it and your money goes against last year's bill instead of this one, which leaves the current year looking unpaid while interest builds.
You find the right one on the notice HMRC sends asking for your return, on any payment reminder, or by signing in to your company's HMRC online account, opening your Corporation Tax statement, then picking the accounting period you are paying for. Take the reference from that period, not the one at the top of the list.
Need the UTR itself? That is a different number and a different guide.
How do I actually send the money?
You cannot pay by post. Everything goes electronically, and the method decides how many days it eats.
- Approve a payment through your online bank account, or pay by online or telephone banking (Faster Payments): usually reaches HMRC the same or next day, weekends and bank holidays included. This is what most small companies use.
- CHAPS: usually reaches HMRC the same working day if you pay inside your bank's cut-off time. Your bank may charge for it.
- Bacs: usually takes 3 working days.
- Direct Debit: allow 5 working days the first time you set one up, then 3 working days each time after that.
- Debit or corporate credit card, online: HMRC treats it as paid on the day you pay. A personal debit card is free. A corporate debit or credit card carries a fee you do not get back, and you cannot use a personal credit card at all.
- At your bank or building society, if you still get paper payslips from HMRC.
For the bank details themselves, use the ones shown in your own HMRC online account, or the ones published on GOV.UK on the day you pay. Do not copy an account number out of an old email, an old article, or a forum post.
What if the deadline lands on a weekend or a bank holiday?
Then the money needs to reach HMRC on the last working day before, unless you use Faster Payments or a card, which HMRC accepts on the day you make the payment. A 31 March year end puts your payment date on 1 January, so check the calendar before you leave it to the last morning.
A worked example
Your company's year runs to 31 May 2026. It made £40,000 of profit and owes £7,600 in Corporation Tax.
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Accounting period ends | 31 May 2026 |
| £7,600 must be with HMRC | 1 March 2027 |
| Company Tax Return must be filed | 31 May 2027 |
You send £7,600 by bank transfer on, say, 20 February 2027, using the 17-character reference for the year ended 31 May 2026. It usually lands the same day, and you have days in hand either way. Your return goes in later that spring, and HMRC matches it to the money already sitting against that period.
Pay it on 2 March instead and HMRC starts charging interest, even though your return is not due for another three months.
What happens if I pay late, or early?
Late: HMRC charges interest from the day after the due date until the day the money arrives. Interest is not a penalty and it applies even when you file on time. What the rates are, and what to do when the company cannot pay, sit in paying Corporation Tax late.
Early: HMRC can pay you a small amount of interest for the time it holds your money before the due date, which it calls credit interest. It runs from the day you pay up to the deadline, but it never starts earlier than about six and a half months into your accounting year, so paying in month two does not earn you more. It counts as income in your return. Nobody gets rich on it, but paying early costs you nothing and removes the risk of forgetting.
What if my company owes nothing?
Tell HMRC that no payment is due rather than saying nothing, or their system keeps waiting for money and the chasing letters start. You still file the return.
Is there any company this doesn't apply to?
Two cases.
Your first set of accounts covers more than 12 months. This catches a lot of new companies, because your first year end is often a few weeks past the 12-month mark. A tax period can never be longer than 12 months, so HMRC splits it into two: the first 12 months, then the leftover weeks. That means two returns and two payment dates, not one. Same rule for each, 9 months and 1 day after that piece ends, so the two payments land months apart. If that is you, check every Corporation Tax deadline rather than working off a single date.
Profits above £1.5 million a year. Those companies pay in quarterly instalments instead of one payment at 9 months and 1 day, and above £20 million the rules tighten again. Watch this one if you own more than one company, because the £1.5 million is split between them, so three companies means £500,000 each. If that is your company, the deadline above is the wrong one and you want an accountant.
How SimpleReturns handles it
We work out what your company owes and show you the figure, the payment deadline for your exact year end, and the 17-character reference to quote, before you send a penny. You pay HMRC direct from your own bank, so your money never touches us.