Deferring tax payments
Readers may recall that following the recent Pre-Budget report HMRC launched a service known as the Business Payment Support Service (BPSS) to allow taxpayers to request time to pay their tax liabilities where they are having financial difficulties. The BPSS deals with all taxes dealt with by HRMC including PAYE, National Insurance, VAT, corporation tax and input tax.
HMRC have announced in a recent press release that since the Pre-Budget report in November, the BPSS have already agreed to the delayed payment of more than £350 million in taxes.
The financial secretary to the Treasury commented in the press release that he would “urge any business facing financial difficulty in these challenging economic times to pick up the phone and speak to an HMRC adviser. A short phone call could save hard working businesses time and money".
HMRC have designed this service to provide a fast response to request for time to pay and state that in the vast majority of cases a decision will be made in around 10 minutes. Deferred payments of tax must then be paid by direct debit. The BPSS is only available to new enquiries for time to pay and will not discuss cases where debts have already been the subject of discussion.