You can pay Corporation Tax by credit card, but only if the card is a corporate credit card tied to a business account, and HMRC will add a non-refundable processing fee to the transaction. Personal credit cards have not been accepted for any HMRC tax payment since 13 January 2018.
Why Personal Credit Cards Are Refused
The ban came in when the Payment Services Regulations 2017 took effect, implementing the EU’s second Payment Services Directive in UK law. The stated aim was to stop consumers taking on high-interest personal debt to cover tax bills.
You cannot get round the rule by trying anyway. Every card carries a Bank Identification Number in its first six digits, and HMRC’s payment gateway reads that number to decide whether the card is personal or corporate. A personal credit card is declined at checkout. If you are paying close to the deadline with no backup ready, that decline can push you past the due date, and HMRC starts charging interest from the day after.
Personal debit cards are a different story. They are accepted, and no fee applies.
The Fee on Corporate Card Payments
Every corporate credit card and corporate debit card payment to HMRC carries a non-refundable fee added on top of the tax.1GOV.UK. Pay Your Tax Bill by Debit or Corporate Credit Card It is not a flat rate. HMRC combines three costs it gets billed on each commercial card transaction: the interchange fee paid to your card-issuing bank, the scheme fee paid to Visa or Mastercard or whichever network you use, and a small merchant acquirer fee for the payment gateway.2Legislation.gov.uk. Explanatory Memorandum to the Fees for Payment of Taxes, etc. by Card Regulations 2020 Those costs are passed through with no markup, so the exact percentage varies by card issuer and network.
The amount that lands on your credit statement will therefore be slightly higher than the tax itself. If your company uses a rewards card and the points or cashback outweigh the surcharge, the fee can still make sense. If cash is tight, it rarely does. Either way, make sure your finance team pays the tax figure in full and treats the fee as separate, so there is no shortfall against what HMRC is expecting.
What to Have Ready Before You Pay
The single most important item is your 17-character Corporation Tax payment reference number. It is unique to each accounting period, so a company several years into trading will use a different reference every time.3GOV.UK. Pay Your Corporation Tax Bill You will find it on the payslip HMRC sends with the notice to deliver a Company Tax Return, or inside your HMRC online account. Entering the wrong reference is one of the most common mistakes and leaves the payment sitting in a suspense account while HMRC works out where it belongs.
You will also need the exact amount owed from your CT600 return, the card’s long number, expiry date, and three-digit security code, and the billing address registered with the card issuer. If the billing address you type does not match what your bank holds, the transaction fails the security check.
How the Online Payment Works
On the GOV.UK “Pay your Corporation Tax bill” page, choose the debit or corporate credit card option. Enter your reference and the amount, then complete the card details on the secure entry screen. Once the bank authorises the transaction, a confirmation page appears with a unique payment reference. Save or print it. If a question ever comes up about whether you paid on time, that receipt is your proof.
HMRC treats the payment as received on the day you make it, not the day the money arrives in HMRC’s own bank account. That rule holds on weekends and bank holidays.1GOV.UK. Pay Your Tax Bill by Debit or Corporate Credit Card Card payments are listed as “same day or next day” on GOV.UK’s processing guide, which makes them one of the fastest routes when the deadline is close.4GOV.UK. Pay Your Corporation Tax Bill – Overview
Cheaper and Safer Alternatives
A corporate credit card is only one option among several. If the fee is what you want to avoid, a personal debit card carries none. If you also want to sidestep the risk of a card being declined, a bank transfer through Faster Payments clears the same day, costs nothing, and works up to the last hours before the deadline. Direct Debit is a good fit if you want to automate payment across future accounting periods, but the setup takes three working days if you already have a Direct Debit with HMRC, and five working days if you are setting one up for the first time.4GOV.UK. Pay Your Corporation Tax Bill – Overview You cannot pay Corporation Tax by post.
If the Payment Is Late
Late payment does not trigger the escalating fixed penalties that apply to late filing of the Company Tax Return. Instead, HMRC charges interest on the outstanding amount from the day after the deadline until the day the money is received. As of January 2026, the late payment interest rate is 7.75%.5GOV.UK. HMRC Interest Rates for Late and Early Payments The rate is reviewed quarterly and tracks the Bank of England base rate plus 2.5 percentage points, so it can move.
On a £50,000 bill, 7.75% works out to roughly £10.60 a day. Interest compounds, there is no grace period, and there is no cap. That is why a declined personal credit card at the last moment is a real risk to plan around: if the card fails and you have no other method ready, the clock starts the next morning.
Most companies with taxable profits up to £1.5 million owe Corporation Tax in a single payment due nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period, so a company with a 31 March year-end pays by 1 January.