Deliberate late payment to HMRC

[Rich_A]

Just to sanity check my thinking.

I have a £1k monthly limit on Curve.

I’m planning on deliberately underpaying my Self Assessment bill – leaving £1000 unpaid on 31 January. I’ll pay it on 1 February. There are no penalties for late payment of up to a month, only interest. And the interest on £1000 for a day is pennies.

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This relies on the £1k Curve Fronted limit being per calendar month. Reading through posts in the past, it seems it was always advertised as pcm, but in reality has been calculated per 30 day rolling period. Now since the update to Curve Pay Pro, it’s genuinely calculated pcm?

[AndrewT]

For the record, it was originally pcm, then the terms were changed to rolling 30 days, then back to pcm again. So Yes in principle you could do what you are planning.

Whether it’s a good idea is another matter. The interest may only be a few pence, but you may also be added to the HMRC naughty boy list. No I’m not suggesting that’s a formal process, but clearly something you can’t afford to do ‘too often’ without attracting unwanted attention. Is it really worth it for a few pounds worth of extra points?

[Rich_A]

Good point. I hadn’t thought that it might have a negative effect on my relationship with HMRC.

[ChrisBCN]

I don’t think you paying one day late will add you to any kind of naughty list. There are far bigger fish to fry.

[robkeane]

I’m guessing the £1K fronted will get you maybe £10 of benefits from the underlying card. If you think £10 is worth it, I guess go for it. Personally, I like to sort out HMRC and be able to forget about it.

[Swiss Jim]

I spent my entire career working in tax. People are irrationally afraid of HMRC. Paying a day late is fine – no-one will care.

[VinZ]

I have the same question as it’s not clear from previous posts. Is the limit on fronted pcm or rolling 30 months? Thank you for clarifying

Edit: sorry, I searched on the Curve website and it says per calendar month which is great!