Purnells Insolvency Practitioners

Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 -
Extension of Temporary Measures

The temporary measures introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act were due to expire variously at the end of March and April 2021. The Government announced that it will extend some temporary measures into the coming months as the economy continues to emerge and recover from the pandemic.

The insolvency measures that will be extended are:

• Suspension of serving statutory demands and restrictions on winding up petitions will be extended until 30 June 2021.

• Small business exemption from the termination clause requirement will be extended until 30 June 2021.

• The relaxation of the wrongful trading provisions will be extended until 30 June 2021.

• Temporary moratorium rules for the monitor will be extended until 30 September 2021.

• Modifications to moratoriums being extended to 30 September 2021:

o Companies subject to a winding up petition can access a moratorium by filing papers at court (rather than having to make an application to court).
o Companies who have been in a CVA or administration within the last 12 months can obtain a moratorium (usually they would not be eligible).

The Government has announced that it has commissioned an independent review of the loan charge scheme.

The Loan Charge Scheme has been seen by many as controversial due to the fact that many parties believe that the legislation is retrospective. Accordingly this independent review will be welcome by many people affected by the scheme, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-November.


HMRC’s position on the matter is as follows:

Customers in the settlement process have the option to either pause the settlement process and wait for the outcome of the review before making a decision on settlement or the option of proceeding and finalising settlement before the outcome of the independent review.

For those in the process of settling who have paused settlement, HMRC will continue its existing practice of not charging statutory late payment interest from 1 October 2018, or if later, the month in which the individual provided the required settlement information to HMRC. They will not need to complete an additional information return by 30 September 2019.

The review is expected to conclude in the mid-November and published guidance can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disguised-remuneration-independent-loan-charge-review.


If you have been affected by the loan charge scheme and would like to discuss the options available to you, please do not hesitate to contact Chris Parkman by telephone on 01305 458383 or by email at [email protected]

We are thrilled to announce that Purnells are Finalists for the Boutique Insolvency and Restructuring Firm of the Year in The Turnaround, Restructuring & Insolvency (TRI) Awards 2019.

The awards will champion the companies and individuals leading the charge for diversity across the TRI arena.

Here at Purnells we are all very proud to have reached the finalist stage and would like to thank everyone for their continued support.

Winners are to be announced at a black tie award ceremony on 13 November 2019.