COM30040 - Background: company taxation overview: corporation tax pay and file

CT Pay and File first applied in relation to APs ending after 30 September 1993.

CT Pay and File was not intended to be a Self Assessment system, although it contains many of the features that characterise Self Assessment.

For example, it introduced

• A realistic, fixed timetable, for the payment of tax and the delivery of tax returns
• Automatic penalties for failure to comply with the fixed timetable deadlines

The CT Pay and File return must include a computation of the CT due, and, as the name ‘Pay and File’ suggests, a company is required to pay the CT due

• In advance of delivering the return

And

• In the absence, at the time of payment, of a Revenue assessment

Ultimately a Revenue assessment lies at the heart of the CT Pay and File system, and the process of assessment is the essential element upon which HMRC bases enforcement and compliance activity.

CT Pay and File applies to all APs ending in the period from 1 October 1993 to 30 June 1999 inclusive.