Limited Company Closure Duration

[kiwisi]

Hi,

After one bad experience after another trading through my own limited company I have decided to close it down. My accountants inform me that it will take anywhere between 6 - 12 months to close the company and that my final set of accounts may not be ready until the end of June (due to their workload). During this time however (ie: up to 12 months) I am informed that I must continue to pay my monthly accountancy fee along with a £125 fee to close the company down.

I have mixed feeling about my accountants as talking to other contractors they don't seem to have half of the IRD problems that I seem to (maybe I'm just unlucky) and everything seems to happen a lot quicker for them.

Would anyone out there please let me know if this is a normal length of time to close a limited company and if possible what costs are usually involved? Also any advice much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,


Simon

[Debbie Reinvented]

Company has to have been dormant for three months before the application (652) to close the company can be made.

Companies House then publish the application in their Gazette and wait for a further three months to see if their are any objections,

If there are no objections then the company is struck off.

If you're accountants are delaying the process because they don't have time / resources to complete your accounts it seems unreasonable that they expect you to pay both monthly fee and close down costs! But it depends what you signed up for and agreed to.

[Debbie Reinvented]

BTW it's not difficult to close a company down if your accounts are up to date and you've paid all the company debts (tax /VAT etc).

File form 652 with Companies House (filing fee £10) and pretty much sit back and wait.

You will only get objections if the company owes money.

If you still have funds in the company explore the option to take them out as a capital distribution

now I'm back to that glass of wine! have fun

[kiwisi]

Thank You

Thanks Debbie for the prompt reply. Would you be able to recommend any good accountant(s) who may be able to take on the closure of the company for me? I'm all paid up with the IRD and VAT dept's.

Thank You :-)

[Debbie Reinvented]

Re: Thank You

Unfortunately I can't help you with this .... seriously suggest you check out Companies House web site to see if you can do it yourself.

If not maybe one of the accountants who frequent this forum could help

[planetit]

Re: Thank You

Kiwisi,

Sounds like you’ve been having a hard time with your current accountant. Care to name and shame? Or at least give us a clue. There are good accountants out there, and it’s important that we all avoid the dodgy ones!