COM96010 - Payments: group payment arrangements: closing / clearing a group payment arrangement

The closing date for every Group Payment Period (GPP) is the later of

  • The latest statutory filing date (Word 42KB) for a return, out of all the filing dates of the participating companies for a GPP

And

  • The day when you receive the last of these returns, or make a Revenue Determination of tax in the absence of a return

The Group Payment Team in Banking Operations use COTAX to issue a CT630 notice of closure to the Nominated Company, showing

  • The payments held on the Group Payment Record (GPR) for that GPP
  • The liabilities of the participating companies at the closing date

And

  • Any under or overpayment

If there is an underpayment the notice requests payment and if there is an overpayment, it asks how it is to be dealt with.

The Group Payment Arrangement (GPA) contract requires the notice of closure to be issued to the Nominated Company and you can not record the details of an agent on the COTAX GPR record.

The notice asks the Nominated Company how it wants to apportion the payments between the participating companies. It may apportion payments to leave an underpayment on a particular participating company record. Any credit balance forms part of the monies to be apportioned unless the Nominated Company claims repayment within 30 days.

If the Group Payment Team receives disposal instructions within 30 days of the request, they apportion payments accordingly. If they receive no reply, or if amounts remain unapportioned, they use COTAX to issue a form CT631 Apportionment Notice showing how they propose to apportion the payments. The Nominated Company has a further 30 days to amend the proposal.

After all the payments have been apportioned, the GPA for that GPP is regarded as cleared and the GPP cannot be reopened, although in certain circumstances the payments can be reapportioned. The Group Payment Team does not specifically advise the Co-ordinating Technical Caseworker when the GPP is closed or cleared.

Once the GPP is closed or cleared, each participating company is treated, for all purposes except the calculation of tax related penalties, as having paid the amounts allocated to it on the dates they were actually paid by the Nominated Company. For more information about tax related penalties see the Company Taxation Manual (CTM) at CTM97570 and COM100000 onwards.

The GPA is of no further relevance for that AP. Any interest consequences are calculated on the basis of the payments allocated to the participators. If the tax liability of a participating company later changes, any further liability is its own responsibility and any repayment is made to it.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

For a list of forms relevant to this subject, see COM96011.

For legislation applying to this subject, see COM96012.