The number of new ‘time to pay’ arrangements agreed by HMRC fell by 43% over the last year, according to new figures.

The new ‘time to pay’ arrangements agreed by HMRC fell from 57,800 in Q1 2010 to just 32,900 in Q1 2011. The combined value of the tax payments deferred dropped by 40% from £890m in Q1 2010 to just £530m in Q1 2011.

Meanwhile, the proportion of applications rejected rose by 50%, with 1,130 companies seeing their applications under the scheme rejected each month in the first quarter of this year.

Philip White, chief executive of Syscap, says: “We may not technically be in recession, but if you look at the six month trend, growth is
flat-lining, so we have to cross our fingers that a double-dip recession will be avoided.”

“These new figures show that HMRC is rapidly winding down the ‘time to pay’ scheme at a time when companies are clearly still struggling.

“HMRC is being far tougher about deferring tax payments – applicants that might previously have been successful are now being rejected.”