Self Assessment for 2025/26
Prepare the return due in January 2027, including director salary, dividends, other income and payments on account.
Updated 6 August 2026 8 min
01
The 2026 deadlines
- 5 October 2026: normally tell HMRC if you need to file for the first time or need to re-register.
- 31 October 2026: normal deadline for a paper 2025/26 return.
- 30 December 2026: file online by this date if eligible tax under £3,000 is to be collected through PAYE.
- 31 January 2027: online filing deadline and normal deadline to pay the balancing amount and first payment on account.
- 31 July 2027: normal deadline for the second payment on account, if one is due.
Late-issued returns and special cases can have different deadlines. Use the date in your HMRC notice if it differs.
02
Complete it in AIS
- Open Tax > SA Dashboard and select 2025/26.
- Confirm salary and dividends pulled from Pay Yourself.
- Add savings, property, pension, foreign, self-employment and capital gains information where relevant.
- Add pension contributions, Gift Aid and other reliefs, then review the indicative calculation.
- Approve the information for final review before submission.
03
Records to collect
Common evidence includes P60 and P45 forms, P11D benefits, dividend vouchers, bank interest certificates, pension and Gift Aid statements, rental records, foreign tax evidence and capital disposal calculations. Keep the records that support every figure entered.
Sources and review notes
AIS rewrote this guide for its own workflows. Crunch Help informed the software process; linked HMRC guidance is the authority for UK rules, rates and deadlines.
This guide provides general information, not personal tax, legal or financial advice. Rules and deadlines can change.