HMRC fines

[neil987]

Hello
I closed my company last year after going permie and not having had a contract since March 2010.
I was told that the 3 months lapse between applying to close it and it being dissolved was for interested parties to claim any monies owed.
Yesterday, I received a penalty from HMRC for not submitting a form. my question is, since the company no longer exists and I am no longer a director, can they enforce the fine on me personally or am I safe to ignore as they seem unable to give me a straight answer until someone more senior looks into it.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[Yehudi]

If the form submission is a company responsibility, then they can go whistle. Which form is it?

[BrilloPad]

Hello
I closed my company last year after going permie and not having had a contract since March 2010.
I was told that the 3 months lapse between applying to close it and it being dissolved was for interested parties to claim any monies owed.
Yesterday, I received a penalty from HMRC for not submitting a form. my question is, since the company no longer exists and I am no longer a director, can they enforce the fine on me personally or am I safe to ignore as they seem unable to give me a straight answer until someone more senior looks into it.
Any advice would be appreciated.

I got one of those. I wrote them a letter of complaint - pointing out that the companies house website was disolved. I got a letter suspending the payment then another one cancelling it.

[Nixon Williams]

Hello
I closed my company last year after going permie and not having had a contract since March 2010.
I was told that the 3 months lapse between applying to close it and it being dissolved was for interested parties to claim any monies owed.
Yesterday, I received a penalty from HMRC for not submitting a form. my question is, since the company no longer exists and I am no longer a director, can they enforce the fine on me personally or am I safe to ignore as they seem unable to give me a straight answer until someone more senior looks into it.
Any advice would be appreciated.

I would suggest that you send it to your accountant, they should be able to deal with this at no extra cost to you, if one of our client's closes their company through us, we would certainly cover this work as part of the fees they had already paid.

Alan

[Bexter]

I would suggest that you send it to your accountant

Given that the OP is now perm, I'm guessing they don't have an accountant anymore?

I also was in a similar position when I closed down a previous company. After I had confirmation the company had been struck off, I got a £400 fine from HMRC for not filing end of year PAYE forms.
I'm politely reminded them that not only did I have no employees, but also the company had been closed. And they promptly replied cancelling the fine and I've heard nothing since. It was only a quick 5 minute phonecall, so its probably worth just ringing to tell them so the stop sending you letters in future too.

[Nixon Williams]

Given that the OP is now perm, I'm guessing they don't have an accountant anymore?

I realise that, but as an example, if a client requests that we close their company for them, we will deal with any queries regarding their old company, even if they crop up two years later. This is all included within the fee the client pays.

Alan

[Clare@InTouch]

I realise that, but as an example, if a client requests that we close their company for them, we will deal with any queries regarding their old company, even if they crop up two years later. This is all included within the fee the client pays.

Alan

Agreed - I think that's quite standard practice.

[Jeremiah@RHJAccountants]

I realise that, but as an example, if a client requests that we close their company for them, we will deal with any queries regarding their old company, even if they crop up two years later. This is all included within the fee the client pays.

Alan

Yes I agree it is very much standard practice in most accountancy firms.

[ASB]

Hello
I closed my company last year after going permie and not having had a contract since March 2010.
I was told that the 3 months lapse between applying to close it and it being dissolved was for interested parties to claim any monies owed.
Yesterday, I received a penalty from HMRC for not submitting a form. my question is, since the company no longer exists and I am no longer a director, can they enforce the fine on me personally or am I safe to ignore as they seem unable to give me a straight answer until someone more senior looks into it.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Is it for failing to submit P35 etc?

I only ask because after I dissolved my Co I had one.

After the first one I phoned and they said "ah yes, oops sorry". After the second one I wrote and they said "oops, very sorry"

I seem to recall that the requested fine had got to £3,200 and I was just completely ignoring them. I got some letter at one point saying they were starting enforcement of some description. I think it was only at this point that the left hand and right hand finally met when they noticed the company hadn't existed for the entire period they were moaning about.

[neil987]

Hello again,

The letter is for non submission of P35, P14 and CL1A.

I have received these letters in the last month but have not had a paid day since the end of March 2010 and the company was dissolved last June.

When I rang HMRC and got answered after 25 minutes in the queue, the woman said there was nothing she could do but escalate it to a manager and I would have to wait and see if they would waive it.

Bearing in mind the 3 month period for them to challenge the closure of the company, I assume all they could do was ask me for the money before the final closure and I am no longer obliged to pay. Is this the consensus?