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Time to Pay Rejection Rate Rises

The percentage of Time to Pay requests refused by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in 2010 was more than double the rate in 2009, according to new statistics.

Figures from HMRC show that the percentage of requests refused in 2009 stood at 2.7 per cent. In 2010, the refusal rate had risen to 5.8 per cent.

Time to Pay (TTP) was launched as part of HMRC’s Business Payment Support Service (BPSS) in November 2008 to help businesses and individuals seeking extra time to pay tax they owed. Since its launch, a total of 16,100 Time to Pay arrangements, worth £890 million, have been refused.

Despite speculation that HMRC has toughened its criteria for making Time to Pay arrangements, its website says: “There are no plans to close the BPSS or change HMRC’s TTP policy or approach.”
HMRC also says that requests that are initially refused may, after a period of time, be revised and resubmitted and an arrangement granted.

The new figures also revealed that since the launch of BPSS, 395,400 arrangements have been agreed, worth £6.83 billion. Of these, 46 per cent involved VAT, which also accounted for 50 per cent of the value of arrangements.

Other figures in HMRC’s latest BPSS statistical release, published on 28 January, showed that since the launch of the scheme:

61 per cent of arrangements were for three months or less
61 per cent of arrangements involved sums under £10,000, or 15 per cent of the total value of arrangements
Demand in 2010 was 60 per cent of the 2009 level for the number of requests and 58 per cent for the value
£5.87 billion has been paid to HMRC from mature arrangements.

LINK: Business Payment Support Service

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Located in Codsall, Wolverhampton we are an independent firm of Chartered Certified Accountants, business advisers and tax specialists.