keep The Corporation Tax (Instalment Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2005
These Regulations amend the Corporation Tax (Instalment Payments) Regulations 1998 by inserting new regulation 5A, which creates a separate instalment payment regime specifically for large companies with ring fence profits (primarily oil and gas extraction) and adjusted ring fence profits. The regulation establishes that the ring fence amount becomes due and payable in up to three instalments: first at six months and 13 days from the accounting period start, an optional middle instalment at three months after the first, and the final instalment at 14 days from period end. It provides formulas for calculating instalment amounts (3×RFA/n for periods ending before 1 July 2006, 4×RFA/n thereafter) and cross-references provisions for repayment, interest on unpaid/overpaid amounts, information requirements, record production, and penalties.
This regulation does not create the underlying tax liability—it merely establishes a payment schedule for corporation tax and supplementary charge on ring fence profits already imposed elsewhere in the Taxes Act. Deleting it would not reduce the tax burden on oil and gas companies but would instead eliminate the predictable, rule-based instalment framework that allows companies to plan cash flow, and would leave HMRC to impose less structured payment enforcement. The compliance costs are modest and the regulation serves a purely administrative function analogous to the existing instalment regime for regular corporation tax.