We thought it would be useful to provide an alternative Budget summary from an IP’s perspective. The key highlights include:

• The Insolvency Service are to recruit an extra 50 employees / invest £25m over the five years for a new Abusive Phoenixism Taskforce to disqualify more directors who abuse insolvency processes to evade tax.
• The Government will amend the Company Director Disqualification Act (“CDDA”) to extend the circumstances in which directors can be disqualified.
• The Government will look to disqualify directors who abuse workers’ rights.
• HMRC will spend an extra £64m over the next five years to work with private sector debt collection agencies and they will consult on how they can make better use of third party data.
• HMRC will spend £89m to recruit additional debt management staff to reduce tax debts.
• Require Self-Assessment taxpayers with PAYE income to pay more of their Self Assessment in year via PAYE.
• Consult on ways in which VAT / PAYE can be paid promptly without falling into companies falling arrears including requiring more tax payments to be made by direct debits.  

The key take-away is that HMRC are looking to clamp down on those businesses and individuals who fail to keep up to date with their tax affairs. This puts further pressure on struggling businesses.