RECORD numbers of small businesses in the North West are using a pioneering scheme to ease their tax burden in the recession, according to accountants and business advisors Beever and Struthers.
In the past six months, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has secured almost 18,000 agreements with businesses throughout the region, worth some £300m, for the time to pay arrangement scheme in its Business Payment Support Service.
Time to pay allows firms to manage their cashflow more effectively by spreading the payment of tax liabilities after agreement with HMRC.
The scheme allows taxpayers to spread all types of tax liabilities including corporation tax, income tax, VAT, National Insurance and other payments owed to HMRC.
Claire Kennedy, tax partner at Beever and Struthers, said: “The help offered by such schemes in these difficult times is welcome, and a world away from the perception of HMRC as an institution to be feared.”
