Churchill Knight & Boox clients being investigated as Managed Service Companies

[saptastic]

A spam post advertising Churchill knight’s new website.

Really? advertising in this thread. interesting approach.

[jamesbrown]

interesting approach

Optimistic, at least.

[Snooky]

I don't know if the interest part, the way you describe, is going to be true for these payments, but after dealing with HMRC previously they did not add interest continually (as per a mortgage) thus compounding the payments month on month.

HMRC calculated what I owed (including interest and late payment fees) and gave me the figure. You may be able to do it yourself but you can probably get the late payment fees removed and the interest on those, which was (and will be in this case) quite substantial, I had a tax specialist do this for me.

I may be misremembering but I thought they calculated the total amount to pay by adding the relevant interest (at what was then the prevailing rate) to the assessed amount and then splitting that into equal payments of £xxx per month. I also think they just used simple interest based on the outstanding balance per month rather than compounding. But ICBW, my memory is pretty shot. I also had the help of a tax specialist who beat them down on various issues.

[GregRickshaw]

I may be misremembering but I thought they calculated the total amount to pay by adding the relevant interest (at what was then the prevailing rate) to the assessed amount and then splitting that into equal payments of £xxx per month. I also think they just used simple interest based on the outstanding balance per month rather than compounding. But ICBW, my memory is pretty shot. I also had the help of a tax specialist who beat them down on various issues.

They did but the original post suggesting a kind of compounding interest which isn't true.

[anthonymccabe90]

Hi All,

I hope someone could help me, after reading this thread didn't see anyone in similar position as me.

I was a Boox client from mid 2015 till June 2019 when I requested and payed them to close my company, I was a consulant in 2015-2016, 2016-2017 tax year period before I went permanent in 2017-2018. However I kep company open just in case perm role didn't pan out at the time, in 2019 June my new company told me I could not be a director in any other company, so I instructed Boox to close my account, paid them in June 2019 for this, In July they confirmed it would take some months for this to happen, after much chasing in September it was confirmed they had submitted closure.

I kept checking CH registry but nothing until October, and in December noticed strike off had been suspended, contacted Boox, email and phone(Someone would call me back, never did) nothing on email till Feb just to confirm, it has been sent to CH for closure but they ignored my point about suspension , I'll skip almost the year of back and forth nonsense till Dec 2020 when they informed me that "It looks like your company closure has been objected to by HMRC due to a potential MSC investigation." and that once it was resolved it would be closed and not to worry. Nothing else for me to do but wait.

Never received a HMRC letter on this, but to this day my company still shows open in CH register, last email from Boox was in August 2021 telling me that "We are hopeful you will go through soon as we have seen others in a similar situation being allowed to proceed to dissolution recently but frustratingly we are not aware of the order in which these dissolutions will take place."

Can I just submit closure for my company with Companies House or do I have to wait for this to be all over?

Thanks
V.

I'm a similar situation to you in that I ceased contracting in 2020 and paid for company to be closed down only for it to be blocked by HMRC for this. I've not used the company ever since and it is just sitting there dormant. I don't think we can just closure our companies while this is going, I imagine it would jsut be blocked, and I would also be scared to try in case that somehow was used against me later.

[woody1]

If you make a PoA, and HMRC lose, then the money would be refunded + interest.

To stop further interest accruing, you need to make a PoA equal to your total potential tax & nics liability.

[jamesbrown]

Thanks for info - so they expect you to have c50k lying around otherwise you get coined with interest too, for a decision you've already appealed pending tribunal on the basis you completley diagree with it. It's just bonkers...

Appreciate your frustration, but it isn’t bonkers. Surely, if you lose and it’s established that the money was owed at an earlier date, then interest on that money is owed too for late payment. Why would they suspend interest on the basis that you “completely disagree”? That would be bonkers. You have several choices: rearrange your finances and make a PoA to mitigate the risk, if you can, mitigate the risk by making another safe investment (unlikely, given the current late payment rate), or hope for the best.

[woody1]

If you had followed this thread since the beginning, you'd see that jamesbrown has been one of the more informative/helpful/constructive commentators. I've never detected any schadenfreude or FUD in his responses.

Unfortunately, you're on the receiving end of an HMRC speculative foray and sadly there's nothing stopping them doing this. Only the courts can rein them in but all too often they seem prepared to give HMRC the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it's because the judiciary are paid through taxes.

[GregRickshaw]

It is bonkers, it's unfair, it’s ludacris, it’s disgusting, it’s bullying and it should be illegal. I hope that there ultimately is an inquiry into this at some point in the future and these people are held to account. They're manipulating complex and little known legislation retrospectively for the sole purpose of catching normal working people out because they’re scrambling for funds. Mate tbh, if your not affected by this and are sitting on this forum agitating people who are, then pls just go away. terrible person – this for some of us, is utterly terrifying and has the potential to ruin our lives and our families lives. Same to anyone else on here just lurking to make smart comments to people who are here for a bit of information, assurance and a community to share the misfortune we’re going through. Won’t be coming back to read your inevitable smarmy response so don’t bother.

James jamesbrown is one of the good guys on here, he may not share your opinion but he does deal in logical thinking and keeps posts like this from running wild.

As we are no longer allowed to speak about this anywhere I can't give you any information which isn't already here.

However instead of blaming everyone else, 99% of contractors used LTD set ups as simply tax avoidance (100% within rules and legal but avoidance) so you can see why HMRC are trying something else to get at that revenue, so whatever your opinion, you can see their logic.

ou are just one of those caught up in yes slightly questionable interpretation of the rules/laws/legislation but it is in full flight now.

It's a horrible situation, but you can take other contractors advice (non of us are tax experts or lawyers (I think)) and PoA or just get ready to negotiate a long TTP.

Stay strong and think clearly and logically.

[enda1]

What are people's opinons on the standstill agreement? Seems like the only sensible option is to enter into it?