HMRC continues to support troubled businesses

HMRC’s Business Payment Support Service (BPSS) was created in November 2008, and since then has helped reschedule over £5bn of tax for more than 160,000 businesses.

The BPSS was set up to allow viable businesses that are experiencing temporary difficulties in paying their taxes to reschedule the payments according to a more affordable timetable. These ‘time to pay’ arrangements can cover PAYE, National Insurance, VAT or any other tax under HMRC and can be applied to businesses across a wide range of industries.

It should be noted that the BPSS is only for new enquiries where the tax in question is not yet due. If the HMRC has already contacted you for an overdue payment, then the office that called should be contacted instead.

Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury said that “the scheme will remain in place as long as necessary, as we want to continue to help businesses through the difficulties they are facing, because small businesses are the backbone of the British economy and have a vital part to play in our economic recovery.”

The BPSS is contactable Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm and from 8am to 4pm at weekends on 0845 302 1435. Callers should ensure that they have available their tax reference number, details of the tax they require help with and an idea of when they expect to be able to pay the tax. More information can be found on the HMRC website

In a separate move, and to show that although it is willing to help, it is also willing to punish, HMRC will be able to publish the names and details of individuals and companies caught dodging their taxes from April 1 this year.

Stephen Timms said: “This new approach should make people think again about trying to get away with tax fraud. As well as having to pay the tax, interest on the tax, plus penalties of up to 100% of the tax lost, they also now risk being identified publicly.”

These measures will target those taxpayers who have deliberately evaded tax of more than £25,000, although it will only be applied to periods starting from April 1 this year, which means that it is unlikely any names will be published before the first half of 2011.