The taxman should pay the same rates of interest on refunds as it expects to charge on late payments, a Tory MP has told the Commons.
Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, proposed a new law to force HM Revenue and Customs to equalise the way it calculates interest. He said HMRC did important work but it was important it was fair to the public, adding that it hit the poorest hardest when refunds were delayed. Mr Freer said: “HMRC do pay interest but the late payment rate is six times the unpaid refund rate. Currently, with record low interest rates the late payment rate is 3%. But the unpaid refund rate is 0.5%.
“There are a wide range of penalties applying to virtually every tax.”
RJS have just been surcharged (£288.60) for our last vat period 1 July to 30 September 2011 for late payment (we have now paid the vat for this period but it was 22 days late)
I believe a surcharge is very unfair for late payment because I am now fully up to date with my payments and the reason for the late payment is down to cash flow. Over last couple of months we have had money owing to us for work done from between £25,000 to £35,000 which is a very large amount of money for a small company like us. Some of this money was for work completed over 5 months ago and one company owed us £13,000.We have been doing everything in our power to get this money in (phone, Email etc.) but if the companies that we work for do not get paid they cannot pay us. So yes I would love to be able to surcharge them for late payment but in the real world you cannot do this.
All our work is done up front with payment paid 30 days later if we were paid on time I would pay our vat bill on time and over the last year we have been setting things up to try and get better cash flow but it is very hard time at the moment to be in business.
For Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester window cleaning : www.rjswindowsonline.co.uk
