Limited Company Struck Off - Corporation Tax Question

[tractor]

...

"You" don't owe any CT, and never did. The company of which your were a director might have owed CT, but that company no longer exists. End of story. Contrary to earlier replies, HMRC can and do sometimes ignore a striking off notice even when there is tax owing.

Just one thing though, when you say you have "set aside" money for the CT, do you mean your own money or company money? If company money then that now belongs to the treasury and you have no right to do anything with it other than surrender it.

Yep. Look up bona vacantia and the Treasury Solicitor. I hope you emptied the co accts before the 3 months was up

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

There's something nagging at me that if a company is struck off wrongly (ie, with creditors), then the debts can be transferred to the directors. Before a striking off can take place, the company is required to send a notice to creditors of their intention. I suspect that this notice has not been sent to HMRC and therefore there could be repercussions. But i might be wrong - I'm going on memory here.

[ASB]

There's something nagging at me that if a company is struck off wrongly (ie, with creditors), then the debts can be transferred to the directors. Before a striking off can take place, the company is required to send a notice to creditors of their intention. I suspect that this notice has not been sent to HMRC and therefore there could be repercussions. But i might be wrong - I'm going on memory here.

I was intrigued by this, because if the debt cannot somehow be satisfied by action against the former directors it would be pretty easy to go on a fiddling spree (perhaps it is).


Not notifying interested parties (e.g. creditors) within 7 days of submission of the 652a is a criminal offence. £5k, 15 years disqualification.

I cannot find a specific method of transferring the debts to the director(s) however there must be one. The creditors have suffered loss as a result of the criminal action and would have redress through the civil courts.

[Sands of Time]

My old company was struck off in 2002 by companies house - no accounts completed and I think corp tax owing about £7k. HMRC didn't contest closure.



Tone

[ASB]

My old company was struck off in 2002 by companies house - no accounts completed and I think corp tax owing about £7k. HMRC didn't contest closure.



Tone

Tone,

Not a problem,provided HMRC were notified (and this can be established) then it is their responsibility to contest. They didn't and were therefore happy. Tough on them.

I am assuming though that you didn't go for ESC 16 clearance because there was no need to take the remaining funds (including their CT) as capital?

In this case part of the undertaking is that you would pay all outstanding monies due to HMRC. If you were in breach of this then, even though they didn't object to the striking off, they would have the right to come after it from you personally.

Since you haven't heard anything for 10 years their prospect of success would be fairly small; indeed it is probably time expired after 6 years anyway.

[Wanderer]

I was intrigued by this, because if the debt cannot somehow be satisfied by action against the former directors it would be pretty easy to go on a fiddling spree (perhaps it is).

Yes it is.

If a company ceases trading because the business went tits up then you can quite legally phoenix the company, take the good bits and continue trading the next day. It's a pretty bad situation for your creditors but quite often that's the way businesses work. So long as you are not trading fraudulently (eg, deliberately bankrupting the company or paying some creditors while the other others get nothing), or doing it systematically, there is little anyone can do about it too. That's the way business works.

[Old Hack]

Yes it is.

If a company ceases trading because the business went tits up then you can quite legally phoenix the company, take the good bits and continue trading the next day. It's a pretty bad situation for your creditors but quite often that's the way businesses work. So long as you are not trading fraudulently (eg, deliberately bankrupting the company or paying some creditors while the other others get nothing), or doing it systematically, there is little anyone can do about it too. That's the way business works.

I had to phoenix a company due to being ridiculously dicked by an agency. Owed 38k Corp tax, which wasn't contested by Hector.

[richto]

I had to phoenix a company due to being ridiculously dicked by an agency. Owed 38k Corp tax, which wasn't contested by Hector.

Ditto - £35K of VAT. 'Forgot' to return annual returns and Companies House struck it off within a few months.