In his Budget, the Chancellor announced further help for businesses facing difficulties in paying their tax. From 22 April 2009, any viable business anticipating making a trading loss in the current tax year will be able to have the anticipated loss taken into account as part of any rescheduling of its Corporation Tax or Income Tax payments.

This new measure means businesses will no longer have to wait for the end of their accounting period to have the loss taken into account in calculating what they have to pay.

This new business support initiative will be administered by the existing HMRC Business Payment Support Service (BPSS).

This new support will enable HMRC to agree an extended time to pay arrangement on the previous year's corporation tax and/or income tax if:

1. The business is genuinely unable to pay immediately or enter into a reasonable instalment time to pay agreement; and
2. The business is likely to make a trading loss in the current year.

Separate to this measure, businesses who wish to reschedule VAT, PAYE and national insurance contributions or who have already entered into a time to pay arrangement, but have found their circumstances have changed for the worse, can also contact the BPSS for a new or revised time to pay arrangement, depending on individual circumstances.

Full details are available at http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=399488&NewsAreaID=2