HMRC payment helplines – VAT, corporation tax, payroll

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HMRC payment helplines – VAT, corporation tax, payroll

Updated: 9th November 2021

HMRC payment helplines: VAT, corporation tax, payroll

HMRC rules and regulations can seem complicated and confusing, and this can often lead to sole traders, business owners and company directors making mistakes that could cost them dearly in the future. However HMRC has a number of ways that it tries to offer help to people so that they don’t end up falling foul of the system. It provides online help on it’s website in the form of guides, videos and webinars, and you can also get personalised assistance via either phone, post, online forms or through live web chats.

There are also a number of phone help lines that you can use to get advice from HMRC, especially if you need to pay your HMRC VAT bill, pay your HMRC corporation tax bill, or pay your HMRC payroll bill such as PAYE or NI collected from your employees.

HMRC VAT Helpline

General Enquiries

If you have any general enquiries about VAT, HMRC operate a dedicated VAT advice service.

Phone: 0300 200 3700 (from outside the UK: +44 2920 501 261)
Lines are open 8am-6pm Monday-Friday
Webchat: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/vat-enquiries
Online Enquiry: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/shortforms/form/VATGenEnq?dept-name=&sub-dept-name=&location=47
Post: HM Revenue and Customs - VAT Written Enquiries Team
Alexander House
21 Victoria Avenue
Southend-On-Sea
SS99 1BD
United Kingdom

How to pay your VAT

If you want to pay your VAT bill then this can be done via any of the below methods, but please note that you cannot pay directly over the phone. To pay your VAT bill you can either:

Pay online, via telephone banking or BACS using the following account details, you will need your 9-digit VAT registration number:
-Sort Code: 08 32 00
Pay online, via telephone banking or BACS using the following account details, you will need your 9-digit VAT registration number:
- Sort Code: 08 32 00
- Account Number: 11963155
- Account Name: HMRC VAT
Pay via the CHAPS system, using the account details above.
Pay via online via a debit card or corporate credit card – note that you cannot pay using a personal credit card
Set up a Direct Debit to automatically collect VAT payments from your bank account 3 days after your VAT payment deadline. You can set this up using your VAT online account or using form VAT 623.
Directly at your bank or building society. You will need to order paying-in slips either online or via phone from HMRC at least 6 weeks before you need to pay the money in. You will need your 9 digit VAT registration number.
By Standing Order if you use the Annual Accounting Scheme or make VAT payments on account. You must apply to HMRC for permission to do this, once this is received you will need to set up your standing order either online or via telephone banking into the account details mentioned above, or use form VAT 622.

HMRC Corporation Tax Helpline

General Enquiries

If you have any general enquiries about Corporation Tax, HMRC operate a dedicated Corporation Tax advice service. You will need to quote your 10-digit Unique Tax Reference when you call/write.

Phone: 0300 200 3410 (from outside the UK: +44 151 268 0571)

Lines are open 8am-6pm Monday-Friday

Post: Corporation Tax Services
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1AX
United Kingdom

How to pay your Corporation Tax

If your taxable profits are more than £1.5 million then you must pay your Corporation Tax in instalments. If your total taxable profits are under £1.5 million then you must pay your Corporation Tax bill 9 months and 1 day after the end of your accounting period. In this case then you can pay your Corporation Tax bill via any of the below methods, but please note that you cannot pay directly over the phone.

To pay your Corporation Tax bill you can either:

Pay online, via telephone banking or BACS using the following account details for the office from which you received your Corporation Tax payslip, you will need your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying:
- Account Name: HMRC Cumbernauld
- Sort Code: 083210
- Account Number: 12001039
- Account Name: HMRC Shipley
- Sort Code: 083210
- Account Number: 12001020

To pay from an overseas account you should use the following details:

Account Name: HMRC Cumbernauld
Account Number: (IBAN): GB62BARC20114770297690
Bank Identifier Code: (BIC): BARCGB22

Account Name: HMRC Shipley
Account Number: (IBAN): GB03BARC20114783977692
Bank Identifier Code: (BIC): BARCGB22

Pay via the CHAPS system, using the account details above to either the Cumbernauld office or the Shipley office.
Pay online via a debit card or corporate credit card – note that you cannot pay using a personal credit card; you will need your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.
Pay online via a debit card or corporate credit card – note that you cannot pay using a personal credit card; you will need your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.
Directly at your bank or building society. You will need the payslip that HMRC sent you. Make cheques payable to ‘HM Revenue and Customs only’ followed by your 17-character Corporation Tax payslip reference for the accounting period you’re paying.

Inform HMRC that you don’t owe any Corporation Tax

If you do not owe any Corporation Tax for the current period then you must inform HMRC or they will continue to send you payment reminders. You can either:

Complete the ‘Nil to Pay’ form - you will need the 17 character reference on the Corporation Tax payslip that you received.
Return the Corporation Tax payslip that you received to HMRC marked ‘NIL due’.

HMRC Payroll Helpline

General Enquiries

If you are an employer and have any general enquiries about Payroll, HMRC operate a dedicated Payroll advice service.

Phone: 0300 200 3200 (from outside the UK: +44 151 268 0558)
Lines are open 8am-8pm Monday-Friday and 8am-4pm on Saturdays
Webchat: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/employer-enquiries
Post: National Insurance Contributions and Employers Office
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1BX
United Kingdom
Online Form: HMRC provide structured email forms for
- Notification of payrolled benefits
- Inform HMRC that you have no return of Class 1A National Insurance contributions

General enquiries for new employers

There is also a dedicated service for new employers:

Phone: 0300 200 3211
Lines are open 8am-8pm Monday-Friday and 8am-4pm on Saturdays
Post: National Insurance Contributions and Employers Office
HM Revenue and Customs
BX9 1BX
United Kingdom

Make PAYE or NI payments

If you are an employer and wish to make your PAYE or National Insurance payments, you can either:

Online: You can apply to make a single payment via CHAPS for multiple PAYE schemes (called multiple or composite payments)
Post: HMRC
Direct
BX5 5BD
United Kingdom

HMRC also operates a dedicated helpline for general advice about how to pay your employees’ PAYE or to order payslip booklets. Please note that you cannot make payments via this phone line.

Phone: 0300 200 3401 (from outside the UK: +44 15 0647 6066)

HMRC Call Waiting Times

HMRC deals with 45 million individuals and more than 5.4 million businesses and each year it receives more than 50 million phone calls and 12 million letters and the news is often full of stories about the incredibly long waiting times for HMRC phone lines and postal replies. However HMRC have recently invested in significantly higher levels of staff to try and deal with enquiries more efficiently.

The individual contact pages generally include information about the best times to call those specific lines, but in general a recent study found that waiting times were shortest between 8.30am-9.30am and between 12noon-12.30pm, whereas they were longest between 4.30pm-5.00pm.

HMRC have also published figures showing the contact and response figures for January 2018:

Phone Calls
- 4,762,727 calls were received
- Calls were answered in an average of 4 minutes 20 seconds
- 14% of calls had to wait more than 10 minutes to be answered
- A total of 86.5% of calls were handled
Post
- 1,265,827 items of post were received
- 5% of post was handled within 15 days
- 9% of post was handled within 40 days
Online Forms
- 110,379 i-forms were submitted
- 2% were responded to within 7 days

If you are struggling to pay your VAT, corporation tax, payroll or any other HMRC bill then contact Real Business Rescue today. Our business recovery and turnaround experts have nearly 30 years’ experience working with companies that are experiencing financial difficulties, taking the time to understand your situation before offering practical advice about how to move forward. Real Business Rescue provide director advice online, over the phone, or in-person at one of our 100 UK offices or a place of your convenience.