Advice regarding family business problem!

npb1991

ey all!

Just thought I’d post here to get some advice! Basically me and my partner have been working for my brothers small company for a couple of years now! It’s not really been a professional thing, I mean no one signed any contracts or anything! Plus I wasn’t even experienced in the job he gave me, which was looking after the company accounts. So id transfer him money whenever her felt like it (which was a lot), sorted out the payslips and made sure people got their expenses! Paid VAT etc! Occasionally he’d come up with some solution to try and get out of paying tax or VAT on stuff! But one of the things he was notorious for doing was asking me and my partner to buy things for him, so it could be presents, general stuff for the office or tools for the jobs and that. But instead of running it through the business me and my partner would use cash we’d get for birthdays (we save a lot) and use it that way and he’d tell me to just transfer the money over to us and nothing was ever said about it! I’ve always been really close to him and most of the family were aware he was doing this with us. Especially my mum who lived with him! However, the past few months he met a new girlfriend (who I always made feel very welcome), but cutting a long story short, we’ve had disagreements over her because she’s not been very nice at times. So he’s finished all of his family members working for him including myself, my partner who is on maternity leave, my mum and my cousin and so on. He’s even thrown my mum out of the home she lives in with him so she’s had to go and live with a friend for the time being. However, no he’s threatening to go to a small claims court to report me and my partner for ‘stealing’ from the business account. What’s worse is that me and my partner never saved receipts or anything from the purchases we made because we honestly didn’t think we needed to seen as he wasn’t running them through the business! We’ve found out he’s spoken to ACAS and they’ve said he has to pay my partner no matter what! And majority of the family have vouched for me saying they were all aware of the cash/transfer situation he was doing with me! But I’m obviously worried because on paper it looks hideous, but I’d never do over my brother in such a way! I even asked him to godfather to my son two weeks ago and he’s just gone against us like this! I’m just wondering if anyone thinks I have anything to worry about or whether a small claims court would even touch it or just any general advice really!
Every time me and him seem to have a fall out he tried to get my in trouble with the law, he accused me of GBH back in 2013 following a fall out and he didn’t get anywhere. I don’t know why I made friends with him, I just thought he was my brother at the end of the day!

We also saw each other that much that there’s nothing saying ‘can you buy suchathing for me and take out the account’, because we always saw each other so we’d talk about it! There was one particular day that me and him were on about it because I was boasting about how much cash me and my partner saved up and three family members were there and have said they can back me up!

Also he gave me permission to use the card and I know that doesn’t stand up in all matters but the card was my responsibility and he would often ask me to transfer him money out of it! Some of that stuff is on texts thankfully! I also have a text to prove he reduced my wage and told me to cash in £650 on top of it as expenses so he could avoid paying PAYE, but he is saying we stole that too now.

npb1991

Some more points;

He’s locked the company office so we can’t get our belongings and he’s never paid us holiday pay if we’ve had any left over! Like we’ve been abroad a few times but we’ve never used all our holiday days up and he’s never paid them.

Also getting a payslip is extremely difficult as him and his accountant are pretty darn tight!

nicechap

nbanks1991 wrote: »

ey all!

Just thought I’d post here to get some advice! Basically me and my partner have been working for my brothers small company for a couple of years now! It’s not really been a professional thing, I mean no one signed any contracts or anything! Plus I wasn’t even experienced in the job he gave me, which was looking after the company accounts. So id transfer him money whenever her felt like it (which was a lot), sorted out the payslips and made sure people got their expenses! Paid VAT etc! Occasionally he’d come up with some solution to try and get out of paying tax or VAT on stuff! But one of the things he was notorious for doing was asking me and my partner to buy things for him, so it could be presents, general stuff for the office or tools for the jobs and that. But instead of running it through the business me and my partner would use cash we’d get for birthdays (we save a lot) and use it that way and he’d tell me to just transfer the money over to us and nothing was ever said about it! I’ve always been really close to him and most of the family were aware he was doing this with us. Especially my mum who lived with him! However, the past few months he met a new girlfriend (who I always made feel very welcome), but cutting a long story short, we’ve had disagreements over her because she’s not been very nice at times. So he’s finished all of his family members working for him including myself, my partner who is on maternity leave, my mum and my cousin and so on. He’s even thrown my mum out of the home she lives in with him so she’s had to go and live with a friend for the time being. However, no he’s threatening to go to a small claims court to report me and my partner for ‘stealing’ from the business account. What’s worse is that me and my partner never saved receipts or anything from the purchases we made because we honestly didn’t think we needed to seen as he wasn’t running them through the business! We’ve found out he’s spoken to ACAS and they’ve said he has to pay my partner no matter what! And majority of the family have vouched for me saying they were all aware of the cash/transfer situation he was doing with me! But I’m obviously worried because on paper it looks hideous, but I’d never do over my brother in such a way! I even asked him to godfather to my son two weeks ago and he’s just gone against us like this! I’m just wondering if anyone thinks I have anything to worry about or whether a small claims court would even touch it or just any general advice really!
Every time me and him seem to have a fall out he tried to get my in trouble with the law, he accused me of GBH back in 2013 following a fall out and he didn’t get anywhere. I don’t know why I made friends with him, I just thought he was my brother at the end of the day!

We also saw each other that much that there’s nothing saying ‘can you buy suchathing for me and take out the account’, because we always saw each other so we’d talk about it! There was one particular day that me and him were on about it because I was boasting about how much cash me and my partner saved up and three family members were there and have said they can back me up!

Also he gave me permission to use the card and I know that doesn’t stand up in all matters but the card was my responsibility and he would often ask me to transfer him money out of it! Some of that stuff is on texts thankfully! I also have a text to prove he reduced my wage and told me to cash in £650 on top of it as expenses so he could avoid paying PAYE, but he is saying we stole that too now.

nbanks1991 wrote: »

Some more points;

He’s locked the company office so we can’t get our belongings and he’s never paid us holiday pay if we’ve had any left over! Like we’ve been abroad a few times but we’ve never used all our holiday days up and he’s never paid them.

Also getting a payslip is extremely difficult as him and his accountant are pretty darn tight!

I'm not sure what your query is - maybe try and turn your wall of text into some sort of coherent history in small sentences and paragraphs, and then set out what your problem is.

sangie595

So, if I have understood this rambling wall correctly, you transferred money from your brothers company accounts, which you managed, to your own personal banking account, and you claim that this was to reimburse yourself for things you bought but you have no evidence to prove you ever made the purchases. But members of the family who hate him are willing to say you are telling the truth.

Good luck with that.

xapprenticex

no can read this

LadyDee

sangie595 wrote: »

So, if I have understood this rambling wall correctly, you transferred money from your brothers company accounts, which you managed, to your own personal banking account, and you claim that this was to reimburse yourself for things you bought but you have no evidence to prove you ever made the purchases. But members of the family who hate him are willing to say you are telling the truth.

Good luck with that.

You read all that? I'm impressed. You saved a lot of people from getting eyestrain.

Valli

If, as I suspect, you have used your name and birth year to construct your username you might want to consider contacting the forum team to change it.

Smodlet

Where is the HMRC when you need them?

sangie595

Smodlet wrote: »

Where is the HMRC when you need them?

OK, I'll bite. I have less idea what you are on about than I had about the OP.....

tacpot12

Given the situation you describe, I would be very surprised if your brother takes you to court. It sounds like there is a lot of wrongdoing on his part. He runs the risk that some or all of his actions will come out in court.

As he as made this threat, I would suggest that you start documenting all the things he has done that are wrong, and start collecting your evidence of his wrongdoing. I would not approach any other member of the family about what evidence they might be able to give you at this stage - just you and your partner should make a list of everything he has done, and make sure you keep (print off) all the evidence you have of this - emails, texts, even your recollections of conversations you have had. The sooner you write these down, the less likely you are to make any mistakes. Don't tell him you are going this, and just wait to see what he does.

If he does try to claim off you, you really need profesional legal advice.

I think you should focus on;
- trying to get any salary owed to your partner paid - as she is on maternity leave, you might be able to negotiate that he pays her all her maternity pay without causing any problems in return for her not returning to the business and not causing him any problems.
- finding a new job for yourself - you need to be able to pay a solicitor if he does try to go to court, so start saving and when the risk passes (say in six years time), you can use the savings for a treat.

Smodlet

sangie595 wrote: »

OK, I'll bite. I have less idea what you are on about than I had about the OP.....

It sounds as if a great deal of tax dodging has gone on. I wish there were a magic ipad one could rub and summon the VAT man or some such to take this person to task. Why should these people get away with this when most pay their taxes?