Research by finance provider Syscap suggest the average VAT deferral request agreed by HMRC under the Time to Pay scheme is £18,840 and that in some cases (particularly those above £19k) they are refusing requests for deferrals on larger VAT bills, research suggests. This compares to an average refusal amount of £117,216.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, suggest SMEs which want to defer a tax payment of over £19,000 could face a flat refusal. Time to Pay was designed to allow viable businesses to defer tax payments during the recession. Since its launch in November 2008, £5.3bn worth of tax payments have been successfully deferred, according to HMRC.

Chief executive of Syscap, Philip White, says Revenue and Customs is being too restrictive in its application of the deferral scheme.

“June is one of the busiest times of the year for VAT funding and we’re getting requests from firms which are perfectly viable, because HMRC has refused their application.”

Requests for Time to Pay of over £1m are likely to be more difficult to secure as they must now be supported by an Independent Business Review (IBR).

Under current rules, the applicant must pay for the review, which HMRC has admitted on average costs in excess of £40,000.

“Parting with over £40,000 to conduct a review when you’re applying for a deferral on tax payment almost makes approaching HMRC cost prohibitive,” says White.

“What’s worse is some industry voices suspect that when all’s completed, the actual cost of these reviews is going to be significantly higher.”

Time to Pay has been tipped as one area which may be scaled back as the Government seeks to cut costs and increase revenues in order to ease the national deficit and already there are instances where smaller businesses are also finding that requests to take time to pay Income Tax bills are also being refused.