advice sought for family debt

djsmith76

Can anyone please give advice on the following situation?
My brother is in partnership with his wife but has nothing to do with the business, he has basically buried his head in the sand for the last 10 years and left the business for his wife to run un-successfully.
6 years ago he had the bailiffs 'at the door' from the bank demanding payment of a £45,000 debt of business loan which hadn't been paid, my father paid this for them on the agreement that the business be sold. Since then it has had numerous sales but all fallen through, the reason unknown to us.
As far as I am aware the bank has given them leeway until the business is sold, but they still owe in the sum of £100,000.
I found out last week that his wife has not paid he tax for the last 7 years and he now has a tax bill for £20,000!
Yesterday he found out that he was going to loose his job (and house that goes with it)
I'm told that his marriage is 'dead' but is staying until all the finance is sorted and can pay my father back, I'm just worried that he can't see a way out of the situation and after yesterdays news do something stupid.
Would he be able to declare bankrupt even if his wife was not willing to and would he still have to pay his debts back?
Any advice would be grateful. Thanks

antonic

If the partnership was registered for HMRC as a partnership, all partners are joint & severally liable.

This means if he goes bankrupt the wife ends up having to pay the whole bill.

If the debt is big enough (and I think £20 k is), then HMRC may make BOTH of them bankrupt, which means they wont have to find the £700 each in fees to go bankrupt.