Tax Payment on Account

Hi. I wonder if someone could please clarify the following for me: (a) I started self-employment in April 2023. I know I have to file self-assessment and pay tax on my income. (b) I will not receive any more self-employed income from this year since I have decided to take early retirement and use up my savings. (c) To ease my cashflow, I plan to withdraw my pension (£50K +) later this year. (d) The above pension will be my only income for the year 2024-2025. (e) I was told by the pension provider that they normally would pay me the amount net of a huge amount of tax on the value of the pension. I was further advised that I should then take it up with HMRC with regards to getting a tax refund. I know that my tax liability for 23/24 is over £1,000 so normally, I will be required to make a payment on account of 24/25 based on 23/24 liability, payable 50% in January and 50% in July. I do not wish to make this payment because I already know that (1) I will receive no income for theyear 24/25 apart from the pension withdrawal and (2) that pension will be taxed at an extra ordinarily high rate such that I would certainly be owed a refund, anyway. So, is it possible for me not to pay the payment on account based on the foregoing circumstances? If so, how do I go about it with HMRC? With regards to the expected refund of tax from my pension withdrawal; is there a special, separate procedure to sort this out very quickly? Many thanks!

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