shellshocked and devastated

IF

Hello Penny, first must apologise for not reading your post correctly lol

You don't sound like a useless idiot full of excuses, we've all been where you are now and until you receive your pack from BDL. Please come on this thread nothing is impossible to sort out and we are 'all' with you every step of the way x

Soubrette

First of all, you are not useless, you did not have any knowledge of this problem and as soon as you did, you have started trying to sort it out. This seems the exact opposite of useless to me :cool:

Personally if I were in your position I would make a nice cup of tea/glass of wine/pepsi max (yum) and sit down with all my bank statements for the last year.

I would have a look at completing the statement of affairs (SOA) from this website

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Doing this means that I would have a feel for my incomings/outgoings/overspending in the last year.

For you, this means more information to decide which options offered by the business debtline are the best for you. Yes, you do have a lot of debt but on the information given you also have a lot of income, this may give you some choices. It is also something that you can do while you are waiting for the pack to arrive from the business debtline.

If you feel really brave you could post your SOA on the debtfreewannabe board and the kind folk there will have a hard look at your SOA and suggest where you can cut back. They can be firm but are mostly fair This isn't really necessary though, the point of the exercise is to give yourself more knowledge.

Sou

skylight

To what extent is the LTD liability (as in anything personally guaranteed and by whom?) The corporation tax is the Ltd responsibility and not yours, so at least you can separate to two. Any other debts owed by the company? On the surface from your post, the company is very solvent just very lacking in cashflow.

Erm... If you take almost £6k per month between you as a dividend and the company is making £118k, where is the other £55kpa?? The company expenses cannot be that much? (Unless you have other staff etc).

Any chance of selling up and buying something smaller? That would dramatically reduce the mortgage cost but its a longer term solution that wont help right now. The expensive car could go - buy a smaller one for half that amount leaves a still decent car plus £3k for the Taxman, not great but a start. That could be relatively quick.

Day to day expenses need to be reigned in fast. There is a hole that needs a plug asap. On the income it really is possible to avoid bankruptcy as a harsh action but its going to take a whole lot of knife cutting in your expenses rather than a little shaving. I know that you are being proactive here, but what about your OH? Will he be AOK in making drastic lifestyle cut backs do you think?

The big question at this point is exactly who has come to the door? Debt collectors only or have the debts been to court for CCJs and they are bailiffs??? Have they been turned away or granted entry - this IS important.


I mention about the drastic lifestyle cutbacks. HMRC are "happy" to make people BR. They are one of the few creditors that do. You and OH especially need to be really focused in this.

grey_lady

Phone your accountants right away - and see what they advise.

Dont worry about the 20k due next Jan because that's 8 months away and if you're turning over more than 100k - then in 8 months you can save that 20k . You've already made arrangements to repay the personal tax on account you just have to figure out a monthly budget that allows you to meet that.

For the 20k due now how much do you currently have in the company bank account? could you make an immediate payment of half say? Because you must be invoicing almost 10k a month to have that turnover.

Soubrette

They have emailed their accountant grey_lady but he is away and so they have had to email the partner.

I think in this situation I'd be inclined to phone too though.

Sou

grey_lady

The accountant should be doing the talking with HM R&C and sorting out a company budget and repayment plan ASAP

e.g
9800 monthly income
850 wages
75 accountants fees
1863 corporation tax for that month (saved in a seperate business account)
2500 back corporation tax owed (monthly cheque to HM R&C)
4511.25 net profit of the month available for dividend

2K to HM R&C to clear the personal tax
Leaving you with 2500+850=3350 income.

I realise that it doesnt include all company costs like mobile phone or NI, but I just meant it as an example - just dont bury your head in the sand and let your accountant negoiate with HM R&C.

Bena_Berry

Poor you, I can completely sympathise. I went BR a year and a half ago as a result of a failed business, along with my husband. It is a horrible and stressful situation to be in and we desperately tried to salvage it but couldn't. I am your worst case scenario and I can promise you its not as bad as you think it might be. Yes, it was embarrassing and there were times that I thought we wouldn't be able to cope but we did and we are happy again now.
Try to remember that nothing will happen over night, these things take time and if you get the right advice from people like the Business Debtline, than things can be resolved. You won't loose everything if you follow their advice and start dealing with it all straight away. Write everything down as you go along too as it helps you figure out the best course of action.
Wishing you the best of luck, hang on in there and keep logging onto this forum- it got me through alot of stuff and there's some real experts offering help. Take care xx

pennyshort

Thanks all so much, I cant tell you how wonderful it is to have a sympathetic ear at the moment.

Grey_lady have tried ringing accountants but i guess as it was just before 5pm all not answering - will ring first thing and will do as you've advised.

-Skylight - The Ltd company has no other debts than the corporation tax atm.--
-I cannot get hold of OH to clarify the expenses part as he is working now but will talk to him in the morning.
-The house is almost certainly in negative equity.
-I totally agree with the day to day expenses and have canceled all non priority household payments, as to Oh well he smokes - currently like a trooper - he has started smoking roll ups in the hope of cutting down expenses.
-The only person who has been to the door was the HM R and C a few months ago and OH kept this from me.
-

grey_lady

I was also thinking that you need to take a good hard look at the company bank statements for the last couple of years maybe go over them with the accountant.

Because the thing is if the turnover has been 118k consistently and you'd been taking the 830 + 5500 out a month then there should be the money in the company account to pay the tax man. But there isnt, so either the money never came in - was there a gap between contracts? Or more money has come out than you know about.

Something to discuss with your OH but the bank statements should shed some light. But worth getting to the bottom of, as is getting your accountant to come up with a plan for paying back HM R&C because they wont go away and will probably come back for a second visit and look to seize assets if you dont have a repayment agreement in place that you can stick to.

pennyshort

Hi again

Well spoke to an accountant this morning and got put through to someone I had never spoken to as our accountant is on holiday, and the accountant who is handling our account is away today.

He has emailed us an 64-8 form form they can deal with HM R and C on our behalf as agents.
He advised us to pay what you can now to show that we are trying to reduce our liability and continue to make payments to reduce our liability outstanding.

However he said that In the majority of instances he has have found that HM R and C will want to speak with the director if they are to set up a payment plan such as the one we proposed (which I don't even think we can repay that amount each month).

Oh is coming home in the morning so we will spend the weekend going through business and personal accounts and also doing another set of budgets as the Business Debtline Pack came today, I don't hold a lot of hope if I am honest. Will investigate the statements and expenditure then.

Grey_lady I just realised you pointed out CABS do not handle business debts, as we have an appointment with them on Wednesday for assessment I am wondering whether to cancel or not in light of our communication with the Business Debtline. Sorry to ramble. but I do not want to waste an appointment if someone else could use it? Or would it be better to take the appointment and see what they say?


Will post back after I hear any news.

Thanks all your so helpful and kind