All sorts of trouble .... (Tax & VAT)

[jmo21]

Thanks for your thoughts, having spoken to a good accountant today I do feel a little better that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

However, having spoken to JSA again ... well it doesnt surprise me we are in this mess. Company accounts where due to be filled yesterday, they had no idea .....

I appreciate your wife has been ignoring letters etc, but surely the accountant should have been chasing for information for your accounts?

[helpplease]

I appreciate your wife has been ignoring letters etc, but surely the accountant should have been chasing for information for your accounts?

yup, they were to a certain extent, but i think after asking 4 or 5 times they just gave up .... which has left me with huge penalties.

[Bozwell]

I think you need to accept 50% of the blame for the state you are in. You're a company Director and as such it is your responsibly to know what is going on in your company. Ignorance really isn't much of an excuse in my opinion. At the very least I assume you know how much you are paid, and know that a percentage of that is taken as tax and yet you didn't look at what was ending up in your personal bank account and twig that something was wrong?

As for the accountant I do find it odd that in the event that their correspondence was being ignored that they didn't pick up the phone to try and speak to both directors of the company! Even if it was just to confirm the address was correct.

Reading from the beginning of the thread to today it does at least look like things aren't quite as bleak as you thought.

[jmo21]

What's wifey saying to all this?

Were you in the course of a separation when you found all this out, not clear from your earlier statements. That'd make it even harder to swallow.

As I said in an earlier post, passing figures to an accountant is not difficult. Paying figures from the company bank account to the right places (VAT, CT etc) as indicated by the accountant is not difficult.

[helpplease]

I think you need to accept 50% of the blame for the state you are in. You're a company Director and as such it is your responsibly to know what is going on in your company. Ignorance really isn't much of an excuse in my opinion. At the very least I assume you know how much you are paid, and know that a percentage of that is taken as tax and yet you didn't look at what was ending up in your personal bank account and twig that something was wrong?

As for the accountant I do find it odd that in the event that their correspondence was being ignored that they didn't pick up the phone to try and speak to both directors of the company! Even if it was just to confirm the address was correct.

Reading from the beginning of the thread to today it does at least look like things aren't quite as bleak as you thought.

Thanks for your thoughts, having read through the thread you will have seen me state "there is no defense" & "stupid of me to not look more", it is what it is .. but I accept no responsibility other than delegating this to incompetents who have not shouted for help when they needed it. I am also hugely disappointed that no one at the accountants like you say, picked up the phone.

I'm afraid things are still very raw for me ... still have the bruises from the fight to stop me finding the letter than kicked all this off.....

[helpplease]

What's wifey saying to all this?

Were you in the course of a separation when you found all this out, not clear from your earlier statements. That'd make it even harder to swallow.

As I said in an earlier post, passing figures to an accountant is not difficult. Paying figures from the company bank account to the right places (VAT, CT etc) as indicated by the accountant is not difficult.

Nothing to say on it other than it got on top and didnt know what to do ... far from been anywhere near in a course of separation, things were great.

Having looked at this myself and spoke to a few people I totally agree .... it's very easy, there's no reason someone with a little bit of sense could not get on with doing this stuff.

[Fifer72]

Its easy to do - my wife promised faithfuly she would do the admin side of the world but it became clear she hadn't a clue when she asked me who HMRC was !! Luckily this was only after a few months so playing catch up wasn't too hard and my accountant was on the ball too.
So hope you get it sorted looks like you've plenty support here and things seem to be going in the right direction - and go on your hols you need it

[TheFaQQer]

my wife promised faithfuly

I don't think there's a married man who has, at some stage, fallen for something similar. But that's for another thread

[Bozwell]

Thanks for your thoughts, having read through the thread you will have seen me state "there is no defense" & "stupid of me to not look more", it is what it is .. but I accept no responsibility other than delegating this to incompetents who have not shouted for help when they needed it. I am also hugely disappointed that no one at the accountants like you say, picked up the phone.

I'm afraid things are still very raw for me ... still have the bruises from the fight to stop me finding the letter than kicked all this off.....

Sorry I didn't mean to seem like I was having a go. Just that you should place the blame equally on your wife and yourself. I truly hope it's not as bad as it first seemed when you sort this all out. Look at it this way, if you manage to get HMRC to let you off the penalties you'll technically be no financially worse off that if you had paid them all up to date in the first place. You'll just have to live like a poorper until you're back on an even keel.

[jmo21]

I'm afraid things are still very raw for me ... still have the bruises from the fight to stop me finding the letter than kicked all this off.....

How did you find out then? came across a letter? Cheerily asked her if all the books were uptodate and got suspicious?

I don't want to come across as digging for dirt, but trying to understand the "how"?