Considering BR but how will they handle me/this?

Legacy_user

I've been self-employed since 2007.

Most of the reason for considering BR now is the 50k+ of CC debt I have. This debt has been building up over a long time. I'm on a self-administered DMP so haven't spent on credit cards since the end of 2010.

Tipping point for considering BR is - downturn in the amount of work I'm getting. Our work is usually booked a year or so in advance and a bit spurt often comes in towards the end of the summer/autumn time. It's down. Also, owe £7k to the taxman which I'm not going to be able to meet in time. Will also have another big tax bill in January and there's no way on earth I'll be able to meet that.

This is the bit that worries me most - We got married recently. Kept the spending down as much as we could but there's still several thousands of £ spent. We didn't get as much help as we thought we would do and again, due to the lack of incoming work (which we honestly thought would kick in by now) we figured we'd be able to meet the current tax bill.

We comitted to the wedding just over two years ago and had already put out a considerable amount in deposits etc.

When I eventually file for BR and get to the interview, I'm expecting a hard time. What are they likely consequences?

Also, because money from the business comes in bits and bobs, I can't even say what our monthly income is, or monthly expenditure on groceries etc. It tends to get spent as it's needed and when it comes in!

Going on what I've read, it looks like I'll be able to continue trading, which is good as I have no other means of earning a living, but I am worried that they're going to haul me over the coals for the "extravagancies" of getting married when in their eyes we should have put the money into tax instead. They're right to do so, but at the time it just didn't seem that way!

IF

Hi messedupmoney have you rung Business Debt line yet??

Business Debt line - Click here

System

I was kind of hoping someone here had been through something similar.

Phoning for long periods can be difficult as I have a condition called trigeminal neuralgia.

IF

The thing is you are asking some questions that are specific in business and I think you need specialist help. They will advise you in a way we can't. Please ring and if they say BR is an option, then we will help you all we can. This will save you going round and round in circles too. Please come back and let me know how you got on and thinking of you too.

Best wishes
If...x

Ineedaname

Can someone ring on your behalf, once through you'd just need to confirm to BDL that this person has your permission to discuss your financial affairs with them.

It's unfortunate they don't offer alternatives for those disabled people who struggle to use the phone, maybe something to mention to them?

PinotGrigio41

Hi I totally understand your troubles and your worries, unfortunately I cant give you any advise specific to your situation, but having been in a similar situation moneywise I do understand how difficult it is. It is so frustrating to be asked for your income and expenditure when you have no idea from one month to the next who will pay, when and how much, to then attempt to budget is a total nightmare and this is what actually got us into debt. Our business was a partnership and we were unable to meet out £13K tax bill which would have been due Jan 2011. We changed the business to a Ltd Company on the advise of our fantastic accountant who somehow managed to incorporate this amount into the Ltd Company meaning we had longer to pay, it is now due by the end Oct. She was a life saver and as we are now Ltd we only pay one tax bill a year, another thing which was crippling us. I dont know if this may be an option for you or not. Good luck and I agree try Business Debtline . Let us know how you get on.

System

I already negotiated an extension with HMRC back in Feb - they gave me 'till the end of November. Everything look set to be fine, but then we had a cancellation in, and the new bookings were down too. In the end it just snowballed. Although we paid for the wedding cash, it wasn't done in a "lets pay for it because we're going bankrupt anyway" way at all. Going on past performance, we should have had a pile of booking deposits in by now and additional work in for the end of this year.

Even if we got another stay for the current bill, it wont save us from the one coming in January and that is likely to be more again.

flutterby_lil

Nothing to add really, just confused why on earth you would get married having so much debt.....

kepar

I appreciate that your business earns you money, but is it actually a going concern. You are struggling to meet your liabilities now, so how would change in the future?
The economic climate is gloomy and your bookings are down, is it really worth carrying on?

By the way I am not implying that you should, but reading your posts, questions have to be asked. You cannot go on every year just ignoring the tax bill.
So how will things change?

System

The business is going OK, just at a slightly lower number of bookings than before. We do however, charge quite a bit more than we used to. However bookings are coming in later relative to the work date so all those big deposit cheques we once would have had in around this time of year have failed to materialise, but probably will do early next year.

What has messed us up is the debt that has been hanging over us for years now. It has snowballed every problem into a major one.

If I'm released from my debts then things can start off again properly and tax money can be put aside as it once was.

It only takes one incident of not having enough tax money put aside to knock you off track and that's pretty much what's happened.