Judging from responses received to our survey on preliminary tax payments, there was an indication that preliminary tax payments received would be substantially down on last year.

In ICAI Tax in early November, we asked readers to respond to the following:

From your client work on preliminary tax payments, do you think the preliminary tax paid overall (including Corporation Tax) will be:

• Substantially UP (>10%) on last year
• A little UP on last year (1%–10%)
• About the same as last year
• A little DOWN on last year (1%–10%)
• Substantially DOWN on last year (>10%)

In summary, over 80% of those respondents said that the preliminary tax payments will be down on last year. This is not unexpected as it is likely that preliminary tax will be based on presumably lower current year results rather than prior year results.

It is interesting to note that not everyone is suffering in the current economic climate – over 6% of the preliminary tax payments will be substantially up on last year.

Of course, the results should be seen as indicative as they are the views of those who replied.