'Corporate Tax MUST be paid electronically'?

[Blackpuddin]

Just about to send off a cheque for my Corp Tax, as I did last year and the year before.

The tearoff Bank Giro credit payment slip on the bottom of the Payment Reminder says 'cheque acceptable', but on reading the 'Paying HMRC' notes on the back of this same form it says 'All payments of Corporation tax…MUST be made electronically'.

Which is right? I'm confused.

PS Sorry, title should read Corporation Tax, don't want to give them ideas for new forms of taxation.

[Eric Mc]

FILING of Corporation Tax returns and related accounts and computations MUST be filed electronically. However, I did not realise that there was a legal requirement to PAY electronically as well.

I am pretty sure you can pay using a bank or post office anyway - which is preferable to sending a cheque in the post anyway.

[Blackpuddin]

I've just had a delve about myself and apparently HMRC stopped accepting posted cheques last November. You can take a cheque to a bank (why would you do that?), but otherwise it's gotta be done electronically now.

[bigandclever]

Strictly speaking, sending cheques by post to HMRC for Corp Tax should've stopped in March 2011. But they will ("by exception") still cash them... the risk is that they don't (and of course they won't tell you they haven't) and you end up with a Late Payment.

[Blackpuddin]

bigandclever said:

Strictly speaking, sending cheques by post to HMRC for Corp Tax should've stopped in March 2011. But they will ("by exception") still cash them... the risk is that they don't (and of course they won't tell you they haven't) and you end up with a Late Payment.

Hmm yes, odd that they should bung up their own lucrative loophole, a good move though, so long as the electronic system works. At least I've got an entry on my online account I can point to.

[bigandclever]

Have you checked out any other payments that must be done electronically? For instance, VAT for (practically) everyone has to be paid that way, since April. No sense getting an unneccesary penalty

[sumo69]

"electronically" includes paying over the counter at a bank - they just don't want to receive cheques themselves.

David