Winding-up petitions increase by 46%

HMRC tried to shut down 440 companies in the three months to December 2022 over unpaid tax debts according to new data from Mazars. This is a 46% increase from the 301 that it tried to close the previous quarter and significantly higher than the 25 in the first three months of that year.

The number of winding-up petitions can be expected to rise as HMRC increasingly abandons pandemic-era forbearance and returns to more normal levels of debt enforcement activity the firm warned. HMRC had been prevented from issuing winding-up petitions by the government’s moratorium on winding-up petitions enacted during the pandemic. However this moratorium was relaxed in October 2021 and lifted in March 2022 allowing HMRC and other creditors to pursue businesses who owe them money.

Michael Pallott partner at Mazars said: ‘HMRC is becoming increasingly assertive in pursuing businesses behind on their taxes....