Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.
If you're facing a tax bill you're worried you can't pay, you might be feeling pretty stressed.
With the threat of penalties and interest of 8 per cent being added, it can become a bigger problem quite quickly.
The promises from the Government that there would be leniency on taxpayers
who were struggling due to Covid-19 — and, for a while there, that people didn't even need to get in touch with Inland Revenue immediately if they were in trouble — might feel a long time ago.
Now, we're being asked to provide paperwork and bank statements to prove paying is difficult, to negotiate and explain the impact of Covid on a business, and make our case for the kindness we were promised. This has come as a shock to some taxpayers already struggling to focus on their business operations and maintaining work and jobs for staff as well as navigate interpretations to qualify for subsidies and loans.
If you have overdue debt, you'll probably see penalties in your MyIR account. Inland Revenue says it's still open to negotiating and working with people who are in trouble — but you need to email them through MY IR or call them to arrange that and it won't happen automatically.
