During the Budget speech of 24 March it was announced that with effect from April 2010, where a business applies for time to pay a debt of £1 million or higher, HMRC may, unless the facts are straightforward, require the business to engage, at its own expense, a suitably qualified professional advisor such as an insolvency practitioner, to carry out an Independent Business Review (IBR) in support of its request.

An informal consultation was conducted by HMRC in January 2010 and the results of that consultation were published on HMRC's website on 16 February 2010. This consultation helped HMRC decide how best to introduce the IBR process and among other things it was decided that if this process was to operate effectively it would be necessary to form an IBR panel.

HMRC have now completed their review of the evidence submitted and a list of the successful applicants on the Independent Business Review panel can be now be found on the HMRC website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/consultations/ibr-panel.htm