HM Revenue & Customs

TheEditor_2

Hi lovely people,

After a while, I'm back. All has been very straight forward - I got my early dismissal questionaire a couple of months back - filled it in and I have heard nothing. I did call once, just to tell them that the HP cars were still on our driveway. The next week, a nice man in a truck came and picked them up. Great, free of that worry! My wife borrowed some money from a relative and she bought her own car on ebay - and shocker - it's running great!

This week, another letter from HM Rev & Cust. about my Limited company. I resigned as director when I was declared bankrupt, but HMRevCust KEEP writing with penalty letters, the only change is that the letters are no longer addressed to me. I keep writing, telling them that the company should be dissolved as it was run by me, and I am bankrupt.

Again, I'm just concerned that once I'm not bankrupt - the HMRevCust will come back to me and say "Here's your bill for £12,000 in penalties".

I'm guessing that they can't touch me, but after the experiencing the inner workings of their organisation, anything could happen! I have also phoned my OR and asked him about what I should do, and his advice was ignore them, but again, this was on the phone, so I do not have that advice in black and white.

Any simular experiences, or any easy way to tell HMRecCust to Foxtrot Oscar?



TheEd.

fiveyearplan

Hi Editor. Good news about your ED form however its not all that long til AD. I haven't had similar experience but HMRC know the law and if you're bankrupt thats it - they should know the law seeing as they are responsible for the most creditor petitions in this country! They don't even make much sense - if you believe the papers the amount Kerry Katona owed was small in comparison to how much she had already paid and I'm sure if she was given another week (instead of an hour) she could have come up with the rest of it. Go figure!

JCS1

Hi,

Your limited company is a seperate legal entity, you going personaly bankrupt has no effect on the limited company whose debts still stand. Please contact business debtline for advice on your company, it may be that the company should be liquidated.

Hope this helps

maxmycardagain

the trouble with HMRC is that they have so mant different departments, and so many different offices, i just send each a letter to confuse em and ask em to contact the other offices, tax/vat have been ok really though, they know they are not likely to get the £9000 they wanted, to say the least.....

maxmycardagain

keep a check opn yr ltd company via the company house website, there may be a motion to strike off, once dissolved its all over.

fiveyearplan

JCS1 wrote: »

Hi,

Your limited company is a seperate legal entity, you going personaly bankrupt has no effect on the limited company whose debts still stand. Please contact business debtline for advice on your company, it may be that the company should be liquidated.

Hope this helps

If any of the debt was secured by personal guarantee then it goes in BR and if they were the only director and the company has been dissolved I think its the same.

rog2

fiveyearplan wrote: »

If any of the debt was secured by personal guarantee then it goes in BR and if they were the only director and the company has been dissolved I think its the same.

HMRC will continue to pursue the Limited Company. The Directors can only be pursued for their individual 'interest' in the company, and providing that the OP had resigned as a director, then he 'should' be okay.
That said, HMRC are a peculiar animal - they chased me for £12k of debts three years after I had 'wound up' my limited company and became a sole trader. At that time, I was still very naive and I signed a dictated 'letter' agreeing to them transferring the 'debt' to me - look where it ended up :mad: - so I would very strongly advise The Editor to contact Business Debtline - 0800 197 6026 www.bdl.org.uk

fiveyearplan

If he was the only director and he goes bankrupt then the debt will go with it.

JCS1

fiveyearplan wrote: »

If he was the only director and he goes bankrupt then the debt will go with it.

Not always - as the limited company may have assets in its own name that aren't personal to director. It'a also the shareholders who are liable, not the directors

Richard_S

JCS1 wrote: »

Not always - as the limited company may have assets in its own name that aren't personal to director. It'a also the shareholders who are liable, not the directors

Hi JCS,

Your posts are always very welcome and almost without exception technically perfect.

Given that the "exception proves the rule" you've got this one wrong; shareholders are only ever liable to the extent of their share holding.

Directors are liable to the extent of their guarantees, and inevitably in a small busines, the shareholders and directors are one and the same, but it's the guarantees that make directors liable, not their role as shareholders.

Richard

fiveyearplan

Sorry, I was basing this on my experience as it seemed from the OP's post was similar. My Limited company consisted of me as sole director and shareholder and there were no assets therefore all debt, if it had my personal guarantee, went in my BR.

Still each circumstance is different which is why its always beneficial to seek advice from BDL or similar.