I want to give you advance notice about a change to the way HMRC will expect customers to pay future agreed time to pay arrangements.
As you may know we can use discretionary powers to agree to payment of a debt by instalments after the due date, where the customer is genuinely unable to pay by the due date and is able to commit to agreed payments to bring their tax up to date.
Direct Debit has always been our preferred method of payment for any regular time to pay arrangement, however from 3 August 2015 payment by direct debit will be mandatory.
We are moving to direct debit by default because:
- It is more cost effective and more secure than other payment methods
- It removes the chance that the customer will forget to make payment
- Payments are more likely to be correctly allocated
- Reduces the need for subsequent customer contact, saving time for the customer and HMRC
- Direct Debit scheme includes a guarantee to protect the customer
We recognise that there will be exceptional circumstances where a customer is unable to set up a direct debit, perhaps because their bank account will not allow it. In such cases payment by other methods may be agreed.
It is not our intention to routinely revisit any existing non-direct debit agreements however for any new agreements we will expect the customer to agree to payment by direct debit.
If you have clients who can’t pay their tax liabilities on time and need to request time to pay, you might want to make them aware of this and advise them to have bank details available ready to set up the direct debit.
We will update our guidance at https://www.gov.uk/difficulties-paying-hmrc
1 comment
Comment by Toni Clark posted on
Thanks for your comment- full information regarding paying HMRC can be found here https://www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill/overview