The Simple Assessment letter (PA302), explained
Last reviewed 1 October 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts
- What this letter is
- HMRC's own calculation of tax it says you owe, sent instead of asking you for a tax return.
- Who gets it
- People HMRC can tax without a tax return. GOV.UK lists three reasons: tax that cannot be taken automatically from your income (untaxed bank interest is a common one), owing HMRC more than £3,000, or having to pay tax on your State Pension.
- Is the deadline legally binding?
- Yes: this deadline is fixed by law. The deadline section below explains what it means.
- Your options at a glance
- Check the figures line by line · Query a wrong figure within 60 days · Pay by the letter's date
Check this letter's figures against your records
You have 60 days from the date on the letter to tell HMRC a figure is wrong (Taxes Management Act 1970, section 31AA), and payment is normally due by the 31 January after the tax year, or 3 months after a late-issued letter.
The 60-day query window is set by law, and the same law lets HMRC allow longer, so even a late query is worth making. Checking the figures is not a challenge to HMRC; it is what the letter itself instructs.
Source: TMA 1970 s.31AA and GOV.UK: Simple Assessment
Why you got it
Banks and building societies report interest to HMRC, the DWP reports State Pension, and employers report pay. When those reported figures say tax is owed that PAYE cannot conveniently collect, HMRC issues a Simple Assessment stating the tax it has calculated, instead of asking you to file a return.
Two things, in HMRC's own words: check the figures against your records, and pay by the date shown. The letter lists the income HMRC used. If a figure is wrong, you query it; if everything matches, you pay by the letter's date.
Check your Simple Assessment figures line by line Or paste the letter
Your options, honestly
Compare each income line against your own documents: P60, DWP State Pension letter, pension statements, bank interest. Tax Letters' Simple Assessment checker does the arithmetic with you, on your device, and works out your exact 60-day date.
Contact HMRC through the Simple Assessment route on GOV.UK, with the letter and the document that disagrees in front of you. Say which line, what your document shows, and what the document is. HMRC corrects or explains.
If the figures match your records, the letter tells you how to pay and by when. Paying on time stops interest before it starts, and paying does not prevent a later correction if something turns out wrong.
You may owe nothing
Many Simple Assessments are correct, and checking one that turns out right is not wasted work: it is the exact thing HMRC asked you to do, and it means you pay the right amount with a clear mind.
If you do nothing
The assessment does not lapse. Unqueried and unpaid, it becomes an enforceable debt with interest, and HMRC's collection letters follow. If your 60-day date has already passed, the law still lets HMRC accept a later query, so the honest move late is still a query rather than a shrug.
The letters themselves say it: if your health or personal circumstances make dealing with this difficult, you can tell HMRC and they can give you extra support. That is a standing HMRC service, and using it is normal.
Already past the date in your letter? Read this before anything else.
Questions worth asking an adviser
- Does the untaxed interest figure match my own statements across every account, and can HMRC show me the account-by-account breakdown behind it?
- Is the State Pension figure the amount I was entitled to for the year, which is what gets taxed, rather than what landed in the bank?
- If I cannot pay by the date, what arrangements does HMRC offer and what does each cost in interest?
Quick answers
A tax bill HMRC calculates for you from reported figures, used when a tax return is unnecessary: for example tax on your State Pension, or on bank interest that could not be taken automatically. It states the income used, the tax owed, and the payment date.
60 days from the date on the letter, set by section 31AA of the Taxes Management Act 1970. The same law lets HMRC allow longer, so a late query can still be made and is worth making.
Normally by the 31 January after the tax year the letter covers, or 3 months after the letter's date if it was issued late. Your own letter's stated date is the one that counts.
Yes, and that is HMRC's own instruction on the letter. Compare each line against your P60, pension statements and bank interest figures. If a line differs, query it within your window before paying the difference blindly.
HMRC's Agent Update of 18 September 2026 says a person who already had a Simple Assessment without their savings interest may receive a second one for the same year once bank and building society interest is added, showing the total. Check the second letter's figures the same way; it carries its own 60-day query window from its own date. Savings or investment income over £10,000 means HMRC asks for a tax return instead.
The checker works out your exact 60-day date and can remind you before it.
Want a professional to look at it?
Some letters are worth handing to a specialist, and knowing when is half the value of a check. An adviser will treat what you say in confidence and will not judge how it got here. If we cannot point you anywhere useful, we will say so.
You can deal with HMRC directly, free, without any adviser. If money is tight: TaxAid (low incomes, older people included) and Citizens Advice help for free.
If Tax Letters ever introduces you to a firm, the firm may pay for the introduction. You never pay Tax Letters for it, and it never changes what these pages say. How Tax Letters is funded.
- GOV.UK: Simple Assessment (checked 1 Oct 2026)
- Taxes Management Act 1970, section 31AA (checked 1 Oct 2026)
- GOV.UK: Agent Update issue 147 (18 September 2026) (checked 1 Oct 2026)