Delayed contract date has skewed my corporation tax repayment

Updated: 4th February 2020

Hi there, I owe about £22000 of corporation tax to HMRC. We were due to take on a contract in August but that has now been delayed till November. Had we started in April it would have been paid on time. I wrote to HMRC asking if I could pay £200 a week and I never heard from them. Last month I made a £1200 payment and called them today to ask if I could pay £200 a week and they told me it's not acceptable and that I should look into secured loans from my assets, which is about £20k worth of kit. I'm not sure what to do, I just need some advice please.

Answer

As your financial problem appears to be centred around cash flow and you have assets which can potentially be financed taking a loan secured on the assets would seem to be the most appropriate solution. I am aware there are specialist funders of media kit who would be able to assist you. In the meantime I would continue making payments to HMRC of as much as you can afford. If you are making regular payments and a bailiff attends they are far more likely to accept a series of post-dated cheques if you can show regular payments have previously been maintained. Also the debt will be lower and as HMRC are under resourced the time from threat of action to action can be reasonably long (although this cannot be guaranteed) you may find it is reduced to an amount you can pay immediately by the time you come under real pressure.