If you are unable to pay your tax on time because of the effect of COVID-19 on your business, Inland Revenue expect that you will pay this tax as soon as practicable.

In such cases our recommendation is that you discuss your options with us first.

These options include tax pooling or contacting Inland Revenue now to let them know you can’t pay the tax on time and negotiate a payment plan. That will typically be an arrangement to pay the tax over a number of months (or fortnightly or even weekly), and possibly with a deferred payment start date.  As part of that process, although this is not specifically mentioned on the IR website, a pre-requisite may be that you have applied to your bank for some help under the business finance support package underwritten by Government.

The advantage of talking to Inland Revenue as soon as possible is that you will most likely qualify for remission of late payment penalties and interest. However this would only be if IR, under their discretionary power, assess that you qualify.

If you would like us to talk to Inland Revenue on your behalf, or you want to know more about tax pooling, please get in touch with us.