How to account for corporation tax refund paid automatically by HMRC

[Contreras]

On the CT600 you can request the HMRC not bother refunding anything under £20, maybe they have done that in the past, and this year your refund was greater than £20?? If you do have unpaid interest from previous years it will accumulate in your Corp Tax account with the HMRC. If you have online access you will be able to check this out - if not, give them a call and see if you have a fat juicy credit sitting there, that you can use to offset next years CT payment.

Thanks Greg. The unpaid interest is really only very small amounts, like less than a couple of quid probably. Not worth chasing, I'm just curious. The interest paid for the current year is calculated to the penny (still less than £20). I'll bet that HMRC can decide to withhold arbitrarily small amounts. It reminds me of techie folklore about the bank programmer who managed to siphon a cent from the interest paid on every account to make himself a millionaire.