Tax demand

[Mayday1]

We have been in business for just over a year and things have become a little tight financially and whilst we have managed to keep on top off all our other payments we have today been served with a 14 day notice to pay our o/s tax bill of �7000, we are unable to pay this amount at the moment however we are in process of remortgaging to raise the capital, however this will not be through until middle of April, can anyone let me know if there is anyway we can extend notice period to 30 days? Thanks

[Kathyan]

Get in touch with your tax office!

[Androcles]

Kathyan is right - there are two no-nos - if you dont want to get into trouble never miss your tax or VAT deadlines if you wish to protect the tender parts of your anatomy!

[Finance Guy]

Quite Easy to buy time here...

Send them three cheques for 1/3rd of the full amount each, post dated a month apart - one payable now obviously. This buys you a lot of time for your remo to pay out (Mid April?? boy, their slow!).

Do a covering letter explaining candidly about your cash flow. Paint a positive but realistic picture of your situation and you will find that, whilst they will not really want you to pay in this manner, they will never send cheques back and will duly bank them on the required dates.

You will incur interest on the o/s amounts but you will not get any further bother, in my estimation.

I did this last year, on my accountants advice. He wrote my covering letter and it worked a treat. Just make sure you pay the interest as quick as you can after the three big lump sums are paid!

Good luck with the remo, hope all goes well for you.

[Twenty20]

Do HMRC accept post dated cheques? I never knew that.

I would have thought the best idea would be to talk to them and explain how you are planning to repay what you owe.