FSB Urges HMRC To Make PAYE Incentive Payments On Time

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

31 August 2007

The UK's Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) on Friday called for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to issue much-needed cheques on time to around 130,000 small businesses. The payments of GBP150 are incentives for filing annual PAYE returns online.

The call followed reports that HMRC had admitted it could take until December to issue the cheques.

The scheme, introduced in 2004, was meant to encourage small businesses to file PAYE online.

Bill Knox, FSB National Taxation Chairman, observed that:

“It is a very different scenario when the HMRC are owed money from small businesses – there is little room for a small business owner to tell the taxman, ‘actually, it will take about four months to pay you because we’ve just been too busy."

“What we are saying is don’t wave a carrot to small businesses if it’s going to be left in the air for months. The financial incentive may not be a substantial amount to larger businesses but is vital to smaller ones, and waiting over a quarter of a year for it is too long a time."

He concluded:

“The Government quite rightly disapproves of late payment of both tax demands and monies between businesses. HMRC, as an arm of the Government, should set an example and pay within thirty days.”

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