November 2011
For the last two years I have taken advantage of the HMRC’s more liberal approach to the collection of corporation tax as they have allowed me to pay a small lump sum and then contribute a percentage of the debt monthly for ten months.
This was a great help to me in 2009 when the bank balance had suffered some heavy hits with bad debt and then again in 2010 as we were battling again with much tighter credit terms with our suppliers. Fantastic and forward thinking of the Inland Revenue for once!
This year however, when I enquired about the ‘usual’ arrangement I was met with a frosty response. I naively assumed that this arrangement could carry on but this time I was greeted with an absolute no by the person at the end of the phone.
I politely enquired as to why I could not continue with the previously agreed terms and the return was that because we had made a profit and paid a dividend this was no longer a facility that was available.
By paying the revenue in instalments I had freed up lots of cash and injected that cash to further benefit the company and therefore the revenue gets more money as I made more profit.
Surely if the politicians want to help us small businesses they should just allow those of us that request monthly payments to allow it rather than arguing the toss about cutting one measly percent of the corporation tax just be more flexible about payment terms.
Comments please to industrymole@imagereportsmag.co.uk