Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery

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Interest on late commercial payments

The interest you can charge if another business is late paying for goods or a service is ‘statutory interest’ - this is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions. You cannot claim statutory interest if there’s a different rate of interest in a contract.

You cannot use a lower interest rate if you have a contract with public authorities.

Check the current Bank of England base rate and previous rates.

Example

If your business were owed £1,000 and the Bank of England base rate were 0.5%:

  • the annual statutory interest on this would be £85 (1,000 x 0.085 = £85)
  • divide £85 by 365 to get the daily interest: 23p a day (85 / 365 = 0.23)
  • after 50 days this would be £11.50 (50 x 0.23 = 11.50)

Send a new invoice if you decide to add interest to the money you’re owed.