VAT Deferral Payment Scheme portal now open
HMRC has announced that the online portal for the new VAT deferral payment scheme is now open for businesses that deferred VAT payments between March and June last year, in order to take advantage of the new payment scheme.
The new VAT deferral payment scheme portal opened on 23 February 2021 and will be available until 21 June 2021.
Businesses can spread their payments over 2 to 11 equal monthly instalments, interest free. Payments can start from March 2021, and the earlier businesses opt-in, the more instalments are available to help spread the cost and provide further support.
The portal can be accessed using the attached link:
Extension announced to the Personal Tax Late payment surcharge
Any personal tax due to be paid by 31 January that remained outstanding on 2 March normally incurs a 5% late payment surcharge penalty.
For this year only, the surcharge will only apply to any unpaid tax as of 1 April 2021. This is an important revision to the previous announcement extending the tax return filing deadline, as the concession did not previously extend to payment of the tax liability. If you are unable to pay your liability by 1 April 2021, you can still avoid the late payment surcharge provided a Time to Pay Arrangement is in place at that date.
No changes have been made to the application of late payment interest, which is still charged at a rate of 2.6% p.a. on amounts unpaid from 1 February. This applies regardless of whether a payment plan has been entered into.
Government Coronavirus Loan Schemes
The three main schemes Bounce Back Loans, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loans remain open for applications up to 31 March 2021.
Applications will be accepted for new loans or extensions to existing facilities and so if your circumstances have changed since your original application, you should consider whether you should look to access additional funding. The rates are keen, repayment terms generous and you are unlikely to be able to access funding on similar terms on a conventional basis.
If you need advice or assistance with making an application, please get in touch with your usual RPG contact.
Accounts filing deadline extension to end
Coronavirus support measures have meant that companies have been eligible for a three month extension to filing their annual accounts. Instead of accounts needing to be filed 9 months after the year end, the date was extended to 12 months after the year end.
For June 2020 year ends for example the filing deadline is June 2021
However, for July 2020 year ends and onwards, the filing date reverts to 9 months and so the deadline is 30 April 2021.
You do not have to take any specific action as we will contact you when we are ready to complete your accounts and therefore require your records. However, we do ask you not to delay the completion of any accounts on the assumption that there will be a further extension to the filing deadline.
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