Falling behind on payments to HMRC is easy to do, with one of the most common reasons being a bad debt or unexpected expenditure having an immediate effect on business cash flow. In order to compensate for this and continue trading, essential payments such as suppliers, wages, rent and utilities are often prioritised over payments to HMRC.

If your company is late paying taxes or is unable to pay in full, it will alert HMRC that your company is potentially insolvent and can trigger a process of increased scrutiny from them. The key to dealing with VAT, PAYE and Corporation Tax arrears is addressing the issue.

To understand which option is best for your individual situation, you can talk confidentially with one of our insolvency practitioners. It is always our priority to help you stay in business, so we will walk you through the solutions you can implement to satisfy HMRC.

A common solution is the Time To Pay arrangement which is an agreement with HMRC that allows companies a revised tax payment schedule over a fixed period – provided HMRC are happy that you will stick to this arrangement and repay all the taxes in full. You will need to convince them that this can be done within a specified time period. If your company needs a longer instalment plan, we can talk you through other recovery options that are more suited to your circumstances.

We understand that the last person you would ever want to speak to would be an insolvency practitioner but we also know that trying to deal with HMRC can be extremely challenging. We have seen every eventuality in business and can help clarify what your options are.