Introduction Background Note
15.The Accelerated Payment Legislation was introduced in Part 4 of FA 2014. It permits HMRC to issue an Accelerated Payment Notice (APN) or Partner Payment Notice (PPN) requiring payment up front of the tax in dispute in certain specified circumstances.
16.Where a company has losses or certain other amounts that derive from arrangements that meet the criteria, an APN would not require it to pay over any amounts at that point because it may have no actual tax to pay when the dispute is resolved. However, it could surrender some or all of those amounts as group relief so that the cash timing benefit passes to other companies in the group.
17.This change therefore prevents those amounts being surrendered and claimed while the dispute is in progress, so that the relevant cash amount can be held by the Exchequer during the dispute. It takes effect on and after the date of Royal Assent to Finance Act 2015.
18.Where a company is a member of a partnership that generates a loss through arrangements that meet the criteria, the issue of a PPN will prevent that company surrendering its share of those losses to another company in its group. This has no effect on other members of the partnership who may be claiming or using the losses in different ways. The final amount of any loss that can be surrendered will be determined through the partnership return, and any revision will then flow through to the partners in the normal way. When that happens HMRC will revise any PPN accordingly.