Members Voluntary Liquidation questions

[Maslins]

Hi, I stopped contracting about 11 months ago and have been a perm employee since then. I have approx £120k in my Limited Company account, no debt or other assets and have all my corp tax paid. My accountants advised me to go through a strike out and pay full CG on my earnings, which I agreed to. Since then some friends mentioned that they would be going through MVL and applying for entrepreneurial relief. I didn't even know what this was! I have since withdrawn my strikeout. My accountants said I wasn't eligible for ER when I asked them why they didn't suggest it (apparently theres a £25k limit???). I am now feeling very lost and trying to figure out the best approach for me given my situation, but I have no tax background. Based on some research MVL seems like the right path and other tax advisors told me I should be eligible for ER. Now I just need to appoint a liquidator.

My accountants referred me to someone who quoted £2500+ all additional expenses + vat. I have seen a few posts here about MVL Online and wanted to get your thoughts. Its seems like all the posts on positive experiences using MVL are people who have only made < 10 contributions to this forum so Im a bit wary of how real they are... maybe I am being overly cautious.. Can anyone suggest a reliable, reasonably priced liquidator ..

If you've got >£25k net assets and qualify for entrepreneurs relief (most contractor companies will provided they've been trading >1 year) then an MVL is likely the best option for you. Strike off will not obtain the same tax treatment where >£25k net assets.

Re number of posts, sure there's nothing illogical in what you've said...but at time of writing you've done one post, does that make you untrustworthy? There have been a handful of more long term CUK forum goers using our service...but typically people use MVL Online after they've finished contracting, hence they'd often then have no desire to frequent this forum again. Point being people who are still forum regulars are unlikely to have used us.

We've recently taken on our 400th appointment since we started ~3 years ago. We were the first to cater specifically to the post ESC C16 market. We're as reliable as any.

Cheers Contratax for kind words. Also see final post on this thread, Jessica's very well respected on here and her client was very happy with the service. Appreciate their post just says "MVL" rather than "MVL Online" but it's clear from the thread/context that it was one we did!

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Indeed it was and indeed they were

I would happily refer other clients on to Maslins.

[MrContractor85]

Hmmmm...

Interesting one this. I shut my company down as soon as I finished a gig and was going to take 3 months off. I spoke to two accountants about this as well as my own as I wanted to be super clean. They asked me if I was 100% sure I would go contracting again and my honest answer was probably but not 100% sure. If anything else not contracting came up that was better I would consider it. I was told by all three that this was enough justification and would be defendable. I also had some discussion regarding a perm job in that time which also backed this up so no problem. I ended up going contracting again of course but still I believe I was justified.

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but just wanted clarity on the above, northernladuk. You were going to take 3 months off, so I'm assuming you didn't, and in fact you liquidated your ltd company (using an MVL provider) and then started a new one fairly soon after? From that timeline, you probably opened newco whilst oldco was still going through the liquidation process? And I'm also guessing you remained in the same sector...

In a previous thread, a poster was querying whether taking a new contract 6 months after liquidating her ltd company would raise red flags with HMRC, and there wasn't a general consensus, yet I'm not sure why her situation was any different to this one? It's actually worse, on paper (albeit with a few emails that back up permanent role discussions, and an intention to take some time off)

Am I missing something?

[pr1]

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but just wanted clarity on the above, northernladuk. You were going to take 3 months off, so I'm assuming you didn't, and in fact you liquidated your ltd company (using an MVL provider) and then started a new one fairly soon after? From that timeline, you probably opened newco whilst oldco was still going through the liquidation process? And I'm also guessing you remained in the same sector...

In a previous thread, a poster was querying whether taking a new contract 6 months after liquidating her ltd company would raise red flags with HMRC, and there wasn't a general consensus, yet I'm not sure why her situation was any different to this one? It's actually worse, on paper (albeit with a few emails that back up permanent role discussions, and an intention to take some time off)

Am I missing something?

Did you not read? He spoke to his accountant, and two others - it's "super clean"

[northernladuk]

Sorry to resurrect an old post, but just wanted clarity on the above, northernladuk. You were going to take 3 months off, so I'm assuming you didn't, and in fact you liquidated your ltd company (using an MVL provider) and then started a new one fairly soon after? From that timeline, you probably opened newco whilst oldco was still going through the liquidation process? And I'm also guessing you remained in the same sector...

In a previous thread, a poster was querying whether taking a new contract 6 months after liquidating her ltd company would raise red flags with HMRC, and there wasn't a general consensus, yet I'm not sure why her situation was any different to this one? It's actually worse, on paper (albeit with a few emails that back up permanent role discussions, and an intention to take some time off)

Am I missing something?

I said I was going to so I did. A bit longer in the end. No way could I have justified this if I hadn't. I also didn't need a liquidation service so much quicker process avoiding the dual running of LTDs. Oh, it's the only time I've done it in 8 years as well.

Three month gap, evidence I didn't fully intend to carry on and no overlap. May not be as long as would be needed to be comfortable but easily defensible in the event it was queried IMO and professional opinion.

Where this might look like lipservice there can easily be situations where it's still a genuine. For example, you pack in contracting fully intending to go permie, role falls through and you are forced in to take a contract to make ends meet. The intention to just Phoenix the company for tax reasons was never there however much looks like it on face value.

[MrContractor85]

I said I was going to so I did. A bit longer in the end. No way could I have justified this if I hadn't. I also didn't need a liquidation service so much quicker process avoiding the dual running of LTDs. Oh, it's the only time I've done it in 8 years as well.

Three month gap, evidence I didn't fully intend to carry on and no overlap. May not be as long as would be needed to be comfortable but easily defensible in the event it was queried IMO and professional opinion.

Where this might look like lipservice there can easily be situations where it's still a genuine. For example, you pack in contracting fully intending to go permie, role falls through and you are forced in to take a contract to make ends meet. The intention to just Phoenix the company for tax reasons was never there however much looks like it on face value.

Good man! Thanks for replying and clarifying, makes complete sense now