Settlement deadline extended - but be careful

[phil@pmtc]

Obviously im delighted to have worked those 18 hour days now to ensure all clients were safely registered by the 31 May deadline. I assume it was a method to ensure they got enough early settlements.

[De Facto]

HMRC didn’t honour their original proposal. Are we all shocked? Far from. But thousands were coerced into making rushed decisions - some of them to their detriment.

- Hey HMRC, how do you sleep at night?
- Thank you for your enquiry. We aim to respond within 48 hours. If we don’t, we will legislate retrospectively.

[webberg]

We have had an exchange with HMRC this morning regarding a change to their website removing the 31st May deadline for registering for settlement.

It now says to register as soon as possible and supply data before the end of September.

The risk they mention is that a late registration may mean that you cannot agree before 5th April 2019 and risk the loan charge applying!

Laying aside the lack of good faith from HMRC in their original announcement, the arbitrary decision that the loan charge will apply even if you can't reach agreement because of HMRC resource issues, the ignoring of legislation on the loan charge and a number of other irritations, for those tempted but undecided or those coming on to this issue for the first time, the opportunity remains open.

The deadline now appears to have shifted to the end of September.