HMRC has issued guidance on how to make sure a company receives any repayments due for an earlier accounting period. The guidance also covers how to ensure payments made are allocated correctly.

If claiming a loss carry back that reduces the corporation tax liability for an earlier accounting period, it is necessary to complete the ‘repayment for an earlier period box’ on the relevant CT600 form. When making a corporation tax payment to HMRC, the company must use the correct 17 character payment reference number. This tells HMRC which accounting period to set the payment against otherwise HMRC may not allocate the payment correctly.