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461 – Paying VAT online on time, and having time to pay your tax

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17 June 2010

JUST a quick note really to make sure this doesn’t slip through the net with any small businesses, or any new business start ups. But there are new requirements for filing VAT returns.

Under the new HM Revenue & Customs rules, existing VAT-registered businesses with annual turnovers of £100,000 or more (excluding VAT), and any businesses which registered for VAT from 1 April 2010, now have to file their VAT returns online and pay their VAT electronically.

HMRC tells me that the vast majority of traders file their VAT returns quarterly. So that means the first quarterly returns affected by the changes are those covering April to June 2010. So these must be filed online by 7 August.

If you haven’t done it before it is quite simple. Even I’ve done it without mishap for the last VAT quarter for Business Car Manager. So I’m sure the rest of you out there can, too. Go to www.online.hmrc.gov.uk/registration.htm and follow the instructions on the screen to register online.

Perhaps more ominous is the potential for the new coalition government to ditch HMRC’s ‘Time to Pay’ scheme in next week’s emergency Budget in order to reduce UK plc’s rather large financial chasm. It was brought to my attention by Jane Bennett, head of campaigns at the Forum of Private Business.

She said scrapping ‘Time to Pay’ scheme could force thousands of small firms struggling to manage tax payments into administration.

Otherwise known as the ‘Business Payment Support Scheme’, this innovative and helpful scheme was launched in 2008 to allow small businesses hit by the recession to defer tax payments to HMRC. Jane says that so far it has helped more than 200,000 businesses ease their cash flow problems by allowing them to defer over £5 billion in tax payments. I’ve met some business owners who have taken advantage of it – they say it’s really helped. The alternative was going bust.

“The Business Payment Support Scheme remains a real lifeline for many small firms struggling with cash flow and this will be the case for a while,” Jane told me. “Re-balancing the economy is clearly a major priority but sacrificing genuine support like this will only jeopardise small businesses and hinder sustained recovery.”

I think we all want to see the UK’s finances in better shape. But it won’t help if the actions taken remove the medicine keeping many small businesses alive.

Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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