Agency mistake means it refuses to give money

[oversteer]

I am missing something then, you have a substantial warchest, put it back in the company and it's no longer insolvent, no need to wind it up and have all this hassle

But it's immaterial as you have this other company now, if you have a signed contract and have a valid invoice both for the new company and the agent has not paid new company then follow it up as you would any commercial debt ie letter before action, moneyclaim ..

[Zoiderman]

I am missing something then, you have a substantial warchest, put it back in the company and it's no longer insolvent, no need to wind it up and have all this hassle

But it's immaterial as you have this other company now, if you have a signed contract and have a valid invoice both for the new company and the agent has not paid new company then follow it up as you would any commercial debt ie letter before action, moneyclaim ..

I suggested this to the accountant, and he said to simply wind it up. A petition is now being built and from their, my liabilities will be decided. I am sure I will have to pay something, and I will.

I will take action now, as they've now been a bit peurile over the VAT owed to the new company. I was going to walk away about it, but the FD has been proving his manliness by making me deal with him directly, which I refused to do, to assert his manliness.

One thing that did tickle me, is that as an FD, he didn't understand you didn't simply become insolvent and have the company clsoed, that you had to build a case for placing the company as insolvent. Caveat emptor with these guys; I will never work with them again.

[oversteer]

But you were not necessarily insolvent. You could have rescued the situation; especially if you had a source of personal cash. You could class a lot of companies as insolvent, if they didn't have a rich backer pumping money in as and when necessary. It seems very odd advice from the accountant to "stop trading", and very odd for you to wind up one company and start another basically on the same day.

Writing off the company like that, especially a one-man-band contractor company, will probably be interpreted as a big f-you to HMRC who may well come sniffing on everything you touch. If they have any suspicion you have traded fraudulently then you are in serious, get-a-lawyer trouble. You are a director and expected to know the rules.

[stek]

But you were not necessarily insolvent. You could have rescued the situation; especially if you had a source of personal cash. You could class a lot of companies as insolvent, if they didn't have a rich backer pumping money in as and when necessary. It seems very odd advice from the accountant to "stop trading", and very odd for you to wind up one company and start another basically on the same day.

Writing off the company like that, especially a one-man-band contractor company, will probably be interpreted as a big f-you to HMRC who may well come sniffing on everything you touch. If they have any suspicion you have traded fraudulently then you are in serious, get-a-lawyer trouble. You are a director and expected to know the rules.

'Lifting the veil (of incorporation)' ISTR.

Winding up the company doesn't automatically draw a line under it, as oversteer says.

[d000hg]

I am not even slightly joking, or trolling. We have been running the company like this for years, and years. We have always paid our Corp tax, and personal taxes, but we have always drawn money down that, I know now, we didn't actually have, as we had corp tax liabilities outstanding, but acted on the premise future earnings would cover it, which it had until we were advised that what we were doing was illegal. Once we were told this, we were told by the accountant to stop trading, immediately, which we did.

However, for the previous 8 years, we have always paid our taxes, it is just the past one which we haven't, and have folded the company. We were advised to do this, btw, we didn't decide to do this, this was legal/accountancy advice. I don't understand the hostility, to be honest. We have been contracting for 11 years and never had an issue. Obviously, thats because we didn't know what we were doing was wrong.

There will be no KY jelly needed, as we have a good war chest, substantial chest and we not once deliberately traded insolvent.

I came here for advice, and all it appears that you want to do, is mock and pour scorn. It's not attractive.

Maybe you should have consulted a solicitor rather than an accountant.

[northernladuk]

Troll.

Even I got caught.

I dunno, was a dam good read and good following on debate so would like to think this is all good.

If it is a Troll though I think new standards have been set for quality trolling that are going to be tough to beat.

[perplexed]

I'd agree with northernlad.

So you've a large warchest , contracted for 11 years, yet crapped yourself over how many HMRC payments? Took advice to burn the company without researching it? If you'd overpaid dividends, there are ways and means of repaying your company...

[Wanderer]

So you've a large warchest , contracted for 11 years, yet crapped yourself over how many HMRC payments? Took advice to burn the company without researching it? If you'd overpaid dividends, there are ways and means of repaying your company...

I think the advice was that in the interim the OP should stop trading with the company while the accounts got sorted out. There is no suggestion that money owed to creditors (eg HMRC) won't be repaid or that the company won't cover it's liabilities, it's just that the advice was to stop using it and start again while the professionals negotiate a settlement with the creditors. It's quite possible that the directors will be treated as debtors with money drawn accounted for as directors loans that will be repaid to pay the creditors. It sounds to me like a company which has ceased trading is in a much stronger position, otherwise the directors may be throwing good money into a black hole or get all the company assets frozen.

As for researching what to do, I wouldn't count posting here as "research". I don't think it's unreasonable to take advice from a tax professional who has no doubt handled a number of these cases and knows how to deal with them correctly.

That's not to say that this isn't a massive mess though. Good luck sorting it out, I'd be interested to hear what the outcome is.