Frequently Asked Questions

Call us immediately!

You are already at an advanced stage in the recovery process and any further failure to resolve the position with HMRC may well result in your business being wound-up.

The likelihood is that once a CCJ has been lodged it will remain in place until the petitioned amount has been repaid which can have serious implications on credit ratings and therefore your ability to trade.

In the event of a winding-up petition, if it is advertised then your bank account WILL GET FROZEN which may make trading impossible!

Agreements with HMRC at these late stages are still possible but the explanations and the repayment proposals need to be quite compelling. Our skills of negotiation will also need to be at their most eloquent!

Our advice... Never let it get to this stage!

Our report will take the form of a letter and will contain a set of integrated monthly projections. It needs to be concise, factual and explain what the issues have been and demonstrate what corrective actions have been taken.

More importantly, we need to demonstrate that all reasonable steps have been taken and that HMRC have not been used solely as an alternative form of commercial finance which is clearly not its role.

What constitutes "reasonable steps"? Well, this list is lengthy but will include one or more of the following:

• Secure additional funding from your bank/factoring company/funder where possible.
• Secure additional funding from your personal bank/funder in order to introduce new monies into the business.
• Streamline the business and make all cost savings possible including redundancies, salary sacrifices and expenditure reductions.
• Consolidate business operations by closing/selling/disposing unprofitable divisions or outsourcing work.

Then there are serious implications for your business which we will need to discuss with you.

You can start by getting proper advice.

The existence of failed arrangements in the past implies that they were either flawed or unrealistic. Either way, your compliance record at HMRC and credibility is already undermined.

Securing a deal may still be possible, however, can you rely on the hope of getting another chance to get it right?

Our advice is... get it right the first time (or at least the next time)... or that could unfortunately be it!

They have the same legal remedies as any other creditor except that they have the weight of the Crown behind them! In fact, many of the tax offices throughout the country have their own in-house bailiff teams or have formed close partnerships with external bailiffs.

As a consequence, HMRC have been more willing to instruct bailiffs or petition for County Court Action or even winding-up. Any form of action taken, starting with early stage warning letters, needs to be taken very seriously.

It is also worth noting that, as tax collectors and not a trade supplier, HMRC will not view their indebtedness in the same commercial context nor are they obliged to. Any concession given must be considered by a business to be exceptional and not to be taken for granted.

They will help you as much as they can but the commercial reality of it all is that these institutions can only lend based on available corporate or personal security.

Given the current economic climate, if your business is struggling or if you have grown too quickly which could equally be the cause of your cashflow difficulties, you may already be highly geared.

There is little prospect of these institutions advancing further funds to help clear tax arrears without a clearly thought out strategy.

As part of formulating a solution to your tax difficulties, we can liase with your bank or factoring company on your behalf and may get some additional support as part of well considered strategy.

It is worth noting that we are particularly well known by all of the banks and factoring companies in the financial community and most of our assignments have been entrusted to us by them. In fact in 2008 we were voted number one provider of services by the factor and asset based lending market.

Yes, it is not disclosed in any public records and is strictly confidential between you and HMRC.

Quite honestly - second to none!!

If a business is viable then we can help get the best arrangement possible as opposed to just any arrangement!

The few times we have not been able to help is when directors had previously fundamentally misled HMRC or if directors are completely unrealistic with their expectations and/or are unwilling to take on board any of the advice given.

Our primary function is to provide you with the best advice possible.

If we conclude that your business is not viable then we would be doing you a major disservice if we persevered with HMRC and reached an agreement if there was little or no prospect of keeping to the plan.

In these situations, there may be serious ramifications for directors in the event of wrongful or, worse still, fraudulent trading as the position of the general body of creditors would invariably deteriorate.

As a strict rule, we will not support any proposal to HMRC in these circumstances as it would undermine our credibility for future clients and arrangements but more importantly, it does not provide you with the best advice.

If you have any concerns in this respect, please call us as soon as possible.

We will not normally make any contact with HMRC until we've had, at least, a first meeting to understand the financial position and make an initial assessment.

We will then normally contact HMRC to agree a reporting timetable to undertake our detailed review. This will take place after we have agreed a letter of engagement. The length of this reporting timetable will depend on your compliance record and size of the tax arrears and could be anything between 3 - 14 days or longer in certain circumstances.

As you can imagine, the time pressures will be intense and if your management information is not up to date then we (i.e. you, your accountant and TAS) will have an extremely busy few days to formulate a realistic plan.

Upon receipt of the proposals, HMRC could respond on the same day or they could take a further week or two to consider the proposals. Invariably, this is when the negotiation phase starts.

It is worth noting that no two negotiations (or indeed time to pay proposals) are alike and this is where our experience will come into its own.

Absolutely you can help. After all, achieving a positive outcome will be a team effort.

Given the time pressures which HMRC will demand, it is vital that we quickly establish the current financial position and we will need to rely on your management information i.e. current management accounts and forecasts.

We will need to interrogate the forecasts to a high level to establish and confirm viability and funding requirements which are the key components in formulating the time to pay proposal.

Negotiating with HMRC can be extremely time-consuming and hugely disruptive to your daily responsibilities. It is a better use of your time to concentrate on running your business and outsourcing this task to us.

As an aside, it is important that you trust us and tell us everything... "warts and all"... as this will enable us to make the right assessment and negotiate more effectively.

Because we are experts at crisis management and implementing turnaround solutions.

Our team has constructed around 500 time to pay arrangements and advises hundreds of businesses who are experiencing financial difficulties each year.

As such, I don't believe we are overstating it when we say that we've encountered virtually all industry sectors and facing a wide range of issues threatening their survival.

Yes, we agree each business will have their own unique features, however, the causes of trading and ultimately cashflow difficulties are invariably very similar. These can include:

• the unexpected loss of key staff or customers;
• bad or slow moving debtors;
• strong competition;
• loss of operational efficiencies; and
• rapid growth followed by overtrading.

In the current economic climate many extreme external factors are impacting heavily on business and the need for careful management is vital to survival.

We can quite accurately gauge your business difficulties and advise on a solution within a couple of hours.

Without a doubt both you and your accountant will be able to agree a time to pay arrangement with HMRC. However, your result may not necessarily achieve the ultimate purpose of the assignment which is to ensure that the arrangement is realistic and deliverable which is where we excel.

We introduce a level of independency which gives you what is often a much needed second opinion and ultimately greater confidence in the proposals submitted to HMRC.

From a HMRC perspective, that independency creates important objectivity for them in assessing the quality and merits of the case being presented to them.

It is essential for the agreement to be adhered to whilst meeting all of your other ongoing commitments such as wages, supplier payments, loan repayments and ongoing VAT and PAYE/NI obligations.

HMRC have a difficult job to do and they will rightly pressurise businesses in default to settle any arrears as quickly as possible. Therefore, there is a real danger that you may agree to an unrealistic plan which could place your business in further jeopardy.

The moral is... leave it to the experts.

Two principal reasons...

We are one of the most experienced team in this field in the UK. To date, our team has successfully negotiated more than 500 arrangements.

We are experienced and independent turnaround specialists - you receive two services in one. As part of the process, we will review, affirm, challenge or refine the existing strategies and perhaps even suggest new ones.

With our input, you can be confident that your business will be better equipped to face the challenges ahead.

HM Revenue & Customs, formerly HM Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise, perform one of the most critical functions in the UK without which the country could not function.

They collect taxes on behalf of the Treasury i.e. VAT, PAYE/NI, Corporation Tax, Self-assessment Tax, Landfill Tax, import duty etc amongst other taxes.