Following the move of the HMRC MVL team from Worthing to Edinburgh earlier this year members started to receive letters from HMRC requesting the payment of statutory interest at the rate of 8% and from the date of commencement of the liquidation. This marked a clear change of approach by HMRC as the established practice was to pay statutory interest to HMRC only form the date the tax fell due, some nine months after appointment (the passing of the resolution to wind the company up having brought the current accounting period to an end).

HMRC stated the following cases as the basis for their opinion;

-          Re Lehman Brothers International (Europe)

-          Lomas v Burlington Loan Management Ltd [2015] EWHC 2269 Ch

HMRC have advised R3 that there has been no change in policy, they are merely correcting an error in their previous approach.