The Byre Theatre was taken to tribunal by the taxman over late payments going back eight years.
The Courier can reveal a penalty charge of £2,159.12 was brought against the St Andrews theatre for the misdemeanours amounting to 3% of the almost £72,000 of money delivered late to HMRC.
A tribunal judgment in August upheld the original decision, which was reached after a “repeated pattern of late payments of PAYE” for the tax years 2005-2012.
In a statement, judge W Ruthven Gemmell said: “In each and every year, at least half of the payments were late and in the tax year 2006-2007, every payment was late.”
Written evidence submitted by HMRC said there were eight late payments and described the Byre as “habitually late payers of PAYE” with “no reasonable excuse” for being so.
Last night, former Byre chairman Frank Quinault said the late payments were not a reason for the theatre going into liquidation as the situation with HMRC was resolved.
He said the issue was indicative of funding problems faced over the years, and pointed the finger of blame at slow payments from funding bodies as being a major part of that situation.
“I think it’s another example of the great difficulties we have had for years to keep the place going,” Mr Quinault said.
“Sometimes we found people were very slow to pay us. Sometimes with grants from other bodies we had to do the work before the payments were made and you’re always out on a bit of a limb.
“We sometimes found ourselves being late making payments because we were on the receiving end.”
Mr Quinault added he expected the Byre to reopen and hoped it could do so under the auspices of Fife Cultural Trust.
Evidence submissions from the Byre Theatre included two examples of what it saw as late payments, where there were several months of delay between application, award and the balance being paid.
The tribunal judgment said the theatre had been given a number of warnings, however, and the later receipts of funding “did not explain the earlier incidences of late payment of PAYE”.
Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser said: “I don’t think it was a huge secret that the Byre had a difficult financial period although it is concerning how serious it has been.
“It is also concerning there has been such a long history of financial difficulties going back many years.
“The focus now is if anything can be salvaged from the situation. The people of St Andrews and North-East Fife are very keen to see something preserved in the community and hope the various agencies working together can form something from the ashes.
“The Government and their agencies have to be prompt payers for the reason that many companies do rely on payments being made on time. It is concerning to hear this might have been a factor in the Byre having financial difficulties.”