Need to get this off my chest....

Scarlett.1974

Hi ITBS

I'm afraid I don't have any advice for you, ltd companies etc.... are a bit out of my league but I just wanted to wish you all the very best for the future. It took a lot of guts to post about your situation and I really hope things can be resolved for you.

Sorry if I've missed it, but have you spoken to Business Debtline? http://www.bdl.org.uk/

JPS29

Hi Scarlett,

Thanks for the support,:beer: .

I have spoke to the business debt line and they were really helpful and have also sent me some info packs out re liquidation and bankruptcy.

My query is though whether to liquidate myself (in the thousands to do) or to wait for the VAT man to start proceedings which will eventually end up in the liquidation of the company, then i can make myself BR?

I don't know whether the OR looks favourably on you liquidating yourself as you have acknowledged the problem and want to bring it to conclusion, or whether I am best waiting for the VAT man to do it and use the money saved to survive whilst looking for a job/income.

I didn't ask them this on the phone as at the time I was planning to voluntarily liquidate but thinking of the costs I am beginning to have doubts.

Many thanks again

Scarlett.1974

Ooooh, that's all gone a bit over my head I'm guessing though, that if you do it yourself it's horribly expensive but quicker..... but if you wait for the VAT to do it for you it's cheaper, but a slower process? Correct me if I'm wrong!

JPS29

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silvercar

If you look at your personal debts, assuming the car gets handed back, they are not great apart from the personal tax due. If you could come to an arrangement with the tax people, you could maybe save yourself from bankruptcy.

Clearly the company is lost; its debts are too big, sadly that also means property C.

What you really need to do is let the company go into liquidation, set up your business again, either working for yourself or as a company and earn some money. If you can negotiate with the taxman to pay your tax in stages and earn some money in the mean time, you may be able to dig yourself out of this.

As for not being a director yourself, plenty people go bust one day and open up under a different name the next day. Same business, same clients, same suppliers. Different name, different directors. It would mean putting the business in the name of your wife or other family members, but plenty of people do it. It stinks because previous suppliers will have lost money and gone to the wall on the back of a failed company, but forced to welcome the business of the new company, they agree to trade again.

You have to look after your own.

You could I imagine step aside and let the existing company go to the wall, wait for the VAT man to liquidate if it saves you money.

You now need to be earning, so either consider setting up again or look for work.

As for the properties, a quick valuation of property B will tell you if it is worth selling; if there won't be any equity after costs then keep it, otherwise sell.

For your own home, the low amount of equity could work in your favour. If you did go bankrupt your wife could buy back the beneficial interest for half the equity value or less, plus costs.

JPS29

Hi Silvercar.

Thanks very much for your help.

If i hand the car back then there is a clause stating I will be responsible for at least 50% of total arrangement.

This will leave me with at least £12k owing
also the business account which is up to it's limit is backed by a personal Gtee with me so again, I would assume that if the company goes down the pan the PG would kick in, ergo another £8k to me.

I also have contact mobiles taken out with "3" in my personal name, as the company had no trading history and could not get credit in it's own entity. These are £400 a month and cant be canceled for at least 9 months. 3 are totally unreasonable and will not let me cancel, or even downgrade these packages one month at a time, so again this will leave £3,200 liability

The personal taxes both past due and soon to be due total £31 k ish.

Add to this my own personal bank/credit cards/ loan with a rough figure of £10k.

This gives me a total "personal" debt of roughly £65 grand.

I honestly thought that my only option was BR? Would it be possible to avoid this with debts this high that i cant afford?

Also I am already at the surcharge notice and threatening letters with the tax man, how open to repayments are they considering i owe them in excess of £30k?

Sorry to go on and thanks again for your help.

silvercar

Generally speaking, only the taxman will make you bankrupt. Others won't go to the expense of making you bankrupt if there is no money in it for them. Unwillingly they will accept what you can afford to pay to them, they may drive you mad with letters and phonecalls, they may give you CCJs, they may try and put a charge on your house, but if you have no money are paying what you can, I can't see them paying out themselves to make you bankrupt.

The taxman is a different story; if they reach the end of the line and run out of patience they can and do bankrupt people. If you want to try and avoid bankruptcy then try and negotiate with them a payment schedule; you will get hit by late payment and interest but may come out of it. You may want to see how the land lies with them before anything else, as that will determine what happens with your home and other property.

Where you go from here depends on your personal earning ability, if you can earn enough in the medium term to pay off your debts then it is worth doing, if you are going to struggle to survive for years and then end up bankrupt, exhausted and depressed then maybe bankruptcy is a way to take a step back and regroup.

Do take professional advice from the debt charities.

JPS29

if you are going to struggle to survive for years and then end up bankrupt, exhausted and depressed then maybe bankruptcy is a way to take a step back and regroup.

Do take professional advice from the debt charities.[/quote]

Thanks for the reply silvercar.

I feel that the above probably is the scenario, and tbh with ccj's defaults etc on my credit file I can't see it being much worse being BR anyway. As i have said before though, and many in similar situations may have found this, the thought of credit/debt in future just doesn't appeal to me at all:rolleyes:

I did speak to cccs but they referred me to business debt helpline as my main problem was there. What i will do now is contact the CCCS and the tax man on Tuesday and find out how the land lies.

I will keep updates of my events on here.

Thanks again.

debt_doctor

Some good advice Walter j, pity you had to spoil it by such a judgemental comment.

DD

maxmycardagain

just a question

regarding a ltd company

from experience, can a ltd company not simply call in the receivers? the firm who had me over had not 1 penny to pay even the OR's bill (the OR asked ME what i knew of the company), i thought a director could call the receivers in regardless of what funds they had, this one had certainly bled the bank dry beforehand.