A Corporation Tax Group Payment Arrangement (GPA) is a special arrangement that allows groups of companies to make joint payments of Corporation Tax. This type of arrangement can reduce the administration and costs associated with making a large number of individual payments. A GPA can also let members of the group mitigate any potential differential interest charge by allowing the group to allocate payments in a way that is most beneficial.
Only certain groups can qualify for GPA and a legal agreement needs to be made. Companies that can enter a GPA are a parent company and its 51% subsidiaries. The 51% subsidiaries of those subsidiaries, and so on, can also be included in the group. This definition is not necessarily the same as other definitions used for groups by HMRC and other government departments and agencies.
A GPA does not alter the fact that each company is liable for its own Corporation Tax, although a GPA also makes the nominated company liable to discharge the Corporation Tax liabilities of all the companies participating in that GPA.
An application for using a GPA should only be made once all the necessary conditions have been or will be met. The application should be sent to HMRC at least one month before the first payment is due for the accounting period to be covered by the GPA. That is 6 months and 13 days after the start of the Corporation Tax accounting period.