A couple of years ago a company I was a director of(4 directors in total) was liquidated. A couple of weeks ago I got a letter from a chartered accountancy firm asking me to repay £3800. When I questioned why, they explained to me that my directors loan account had reduced from 12000 to 8200 in the last 6 months of trading before liquidation. (We had to go through involuntary liquidation- HMRC) I never actually loaned the company any money to build up this 12k, what was actually happening was along with about 10 other staff I was getting paid to run the company.( I was not a majority shareholder, and was running the company, the other directors were just shareholders and didn't get salaries or anything, just turned up for board meetings and helped steer the direction) But since the company didn't always have the money in the bank to pay my wage, I would get it late, sometimes months later.
So the way I see it is these are not directors loans but actually unpaid/late wages. The way that the CA has worked this out is that our company accountant supplied him draft accounts for our last 6 month period, and she took it upon herself to declare these unpaid wages as directors loans. I have not agreed to this in writing or signed off these drafts, in fact I was surprised she even supplied them to the liquidators.
My options as I see them are:
1. Pay the money. (I am able) But I feel as if this is letting the other directors off scot free, even though I was the one missing out on a wage. My company helped theirs in a lot of non monetary ways.
2. Tell the CA that I dont think I should pay because I see this as unpaid wages that were simply paid as and when the company had money. (Am I risking getting disqualified as a director? or them coming after me personally anyway)
3. I speak to the other directors and say we should all be splitting this liability, since I don't feel that I created it personally, and if you don't help then all 5 of us risk getting struck off. (Not the nicest path!) I actually moved out of the UK and started a company in the Middle East, I don't see myself starting another company in the UK anytime soon, as the Middle East operation is doing swimmingly, they on the other hand are all running companies in the UK, and so being struck off would be very detrimental.
On another note regardless of whether I pay back or not, does this sound like grounds to be disqualified from future directorships? I feel like I have done nothing wrong at all, in fact the company still owes me 8000 on paper, not that in reality I ever even thought it did till this letter came through the door.
So the way I see it is these are not directors loans but actually unpaid/late wages. The way that the CA has worked this out is that our company accountant supplied him draft accounts for our last 6 month period, and she took it upon herself to declare these unpaid wages as directors loans. I have not agreed to this in writing or signed off these drafts, in fact I was surprised she even supplied them to the liquidators.
My options as I see them are:
1. Pay the money. (I am able) But I feel as if this is letting the other directors off scot free, even though I was the one missing out on a wage. My company helped theirs in a lot of non monetary ways.
2. Tell the CA that I dont think I should pay because I see this as unpaid wages that were simply paid as and when the company had money. (Am I risking getting disqualified as a director? or them coming after me personally anyway)
3. I speak to the other directors and say we should all be splitting this liability, since I don't feel that I created it personally, and if you don't help then all 5 of us risk getting struck off. (Not the nicest path!) I actually moved out of the UK and started a company in the Middle East, I don't see myself starting another company in the UK anytime soon, as the Middle East operation is doing swimmingly, they on the other hand are all running companies in the UK, and so being struck off would be very detrimental.
On another note regardless of whether I pay back or not, does this sound like grounds to be disqualified from future directorships? I feel like I have done nothing wrong at all, in fact the company still owes me 8000 on paper, not that in reality I ever even thought it did till this letter came through the door.
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