HM Revenue and Customs applied to wind up nearly three out of every five companies which faced a liquidation petition last year in a sign the taxman has renewed his tough stance.
HM Revenue and Customs applied to wind up nearly three out of every five companies which faced a liquidation petition last year in a sign the taxman has renewed his tough stance.
HMRC made 58 per cent of all petitions to the High Court between October last year and September this year, affecting about 6,400 companies, research from the accountancy group UHY Hacker Young shows.
This is a jump of 43 per cent in petitions by HMRC compared with the year before and nearer to the 53 per cent recorded in 2008.
Among the AIM-quoted companies petitioned by HMRC in the past year are 1st Dental Laboratories and Archial. Football clubs that have fallen foul of the tax office include Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, Plymouth Argyle and Cardiff City Football Club.
In November 2008 HMRC launched the Time to Pay scheme to help businesses unable to meet tax commitments because of the global financial crisis by postponing or spreading out their tax payments.
But in the past months, business analysts have been warning of a shift in HMRC policy as the coalition government attempts to claw back debt.
The research shows the value of Time to Pay arrangements granted by HMRC has dropped 45 per cent in the past year from £830 million to £460 million.
Sixteen per cent has been cut from the scheme in the past quarter alone.
UHY Hacker Young tax partner Roy Maugham says the research shows HMRC, after a brief interlude, is taking an aggressive line against those businesses that can’t afford to pay their tax bill.
Young says: ‘The taxman is shedding the more sympathetic stance it adopted towards struggling businesses during the recession.’
‘HMRC has been willing to give struggling businesses some leeway through [its] Time to Pay scheme, but that scheme seems to be winding down and this jump in attempts to liquidate businesses is a clear trend.’
‘Although there have been no official announcements, HMRC’s more considerate stance that it took to businesses during the recession has changed back to its pre-recession hard-nosed approach.’
