Late filing of Companies House accounts

[dude69]

My company, which has not issued any invoices for a couple of years, and has about £40 in its bank account, filed its accounts late. The penalty is £375.

Obviously I could lend the company the money personally, but I am wondering if I would be better advised to wind it up. The penalty is still in dispute with Companies House, but I feel that it is unlikely to be waived. Obviously I would be winding it up in the knowledge that there is a potential debt to Companies House.

Anybody know?

[Hex]

I doubt Companies House will allow you to wind up the company if the company owes them money.

[dude69]

I doubt Companies House will allow you to wind up the company if the company owes them money.

Yeah you might be right... There was something about bailiffs seizing goods, the company does have some IT assets but they are rather depreciated now. It might be the easiest solution just to flog them off to myself and pay the £££.

[Craig@Clarity]

My company, which has not issued any invoices for a couple of years, and has about £40 in its bank account, filed its accounts late. The penalty is £375.

Obviously I could lend the company the money personally, but I am wondering if I would be better advised to wind it up. The penalty is still in dispute with Companies House, but I feel that it is unlikely to be waived. Obviously I would be winding it up in the knowledge that there is a potential debt to Companies House.

Anybody know?

I'm not advising you to close or keep the company open but if you submit an application to strike of your company and the debt hasn't yet been passed over to debt collection, the penalty will be waived.

[Clippy]

I'm not advising you to close or keep the company open but if you submit an application to strike of your company and the debt hasn't yet been passed over to debt collection, the penalty will be waived.

Doesn't the striking off process involve you warranting that the company doesn't have or has cleared its debts?

[Craig@Clarity]

Doesn't the striking off process involve you warranting that the company doesn't have or has cleared its debts?

There's a whole procedure to closing the company properly yes. I was simply saying what the end result would be if a company was to apply to be struck off

[dude69]

I'm not advising you to close or keep the company open but if you submit an application to strike of your company and the debt hasn't yet been passed over to debt collection, the penalty will be waived.

According to the letter I just received from them, the penalty recovery action process has been stayed for 3 weeks while they wait for further information from me (so I've got 3 weeks to send them a reply, then potentially a bit longer after that till they make their final determination). Is this enough time to get the company struck off, so as to not pay the penalty? I have no reason to keep the company open any longer tbh.

The status of the penalty currently is I guess that it is still owed (and it may be varied downwards, but probably not waived entirely), but they are not seeking to recover it currently.

[Craig@Clarity]

According to the letter I just received from them, the penalty recovery action process has been stayed for 3 weeks while they wait for further information from me (so I've got 3 weeks to send them a reply, then potentially a bit longer after that till they make their final determination). Is this enough time to get the company struck off, avoiding the penalty.

It's probably best to speak to your accountant about it as they'll know your exact company position and what is outstanding. Potentially, you could have the final accounts drafted up in that time and apply for the winding up.

[dude69]

It's probably best to speak to your accountant about it as they'll know your exact company position and what is outstanding. Potentially, you could have the final accounts drafted up in that time and apply for the winding up.

I do my own accounts, it's fairly straight-forward. Not sure how much the winding up would cost were I to engage somebody to do it.

[MarillionFan]

Move to strike it off. If you have not done your accounts there is a good chance they will start that process. Fines from HMRC do not count as 'debts' per se and they may even recommend you do it yourself.

I got two years behi d with one LTD and owed £1500 in penalties. My accountant who was as straight as a dice told me to get them up to date before they struck it off. I loaned the company the money. That cost another 1K. When I phoned to pay the penalties HMRC asked me why I had bothered. If I had let them strike me off they would have cancelled the penalties. I then put to strike off myself. I was told to ignore the letters and eventually after 3 months I was struck off. Basically I paid to do the accou ts and needn't have bothered.

Check with HMRC first saying it's dormant and you want to strike off. They may have tightened up though