Time to pay ploy

I sent this email to the Financial Times and thought you should be aware of what HMRC are doing now.

‘Thank you for mentioning the “time to pay” facility... Making arrangements has as you say become more difficult with questions about director’s personal assets personal credit card facilities etc. but I was horrified to learn of HMRC’s latest “ploy” this morning.

‘In a nutshell if the company has paid any dividends in the period between the company’s year end and the due date for payment of the corporation tax (usually nine months and one day later) then an arrangement cannot be set up there and then. Instead an HMRC “support team” will contact the company within four days of the phone call. Obviously at this stage I do not know what their attitude to deferring payment will be but if they also stand...