Closed Limited company, but money seized by the treasury

[sbakoola]

this happened to me 20 years ago also when I was a fresh faced contractor

I was closing my limited company down 20 years ago after a long contracting sting, I was a very young chap and Abbey Business (remember them ?) were also relatively new and I was advised by them to keep the business account open even after the company was struck off, I thought it a little odd but didn't get their tulip advice in writing. I had £35k in there ! and it all went Bona Vacantia to the treasury solicitors. Of course no warning that this was occurring, just nice and stealthily took the money out of the business account and transferred it across. I had endless telephone conversations with one of the big wigs at Abbey Business (name like Paul Lennin or John Lennon or something like that). Anyhow I remember that Abbey tried a dirty trick, they sent me a letter with a form asking me to sign it stating if I sign the letter I would waiver all rights to seek compensation BUT they would pay for the telephone calls made to sort this mess out !!!! suffice to say I told them to stuff it. I got my money back hired a firm which I think were named UK Data Ltd or something like that back then, they were very good as were the Treasury solicitor, I paid around £350 and got he Limited company reopened for a single day to have the money transferred to my Abbey business account (which was still open but they unfroze it for a day so I transferred it to my personal account from there). A horrible experience which I can smirk about now. Don't trust people, don't trust banks and don't trust the government and if your instinct and common sense give you the slightest of doubts follow it up to the Nth degree.. lesson learned.

Now wait for all the contractors on here to give me snarky comments....

HELP FOR YOU: I was looking at my old emails and it was indeed UK Data that helped me with the company restoration. They can be found at Company and Director credit reports and annual accounts. Free search. - All UK Directors. Business credit reports , don't be put off by them seeming to be a company information/reports service, they may be able to recommend someone to restore
your company internally or externally.

Also I'm not entirely sure if it was 20 years ago, it may have been 16 or so, a chap named Paul Blackburn was dealing with me.
And finally you will mostly have to coordinate your efforts with the Treasury Solicitor to keep them in the loop and check that everything is progressing towards the future date and everyone is on the same page with business bank account getting unfrozen, company re-opening and then closing and the Treasury actually transferring the money to the business account.

[handyandy]

OP - look at Yonmons reply above and if this is surely company outstanding tax (CT or even PAYE/NI) that you kept in the bank account then you have nothing to worry about. This happened to me about 20 years ago and I had a couple of weeks of anxiety and furious phone calls with the account who had had the company disclosed without telling me that the bank account is automatically frozen on dissolution of a company.

If you did have personal money (i.e. dividends or salary that you had not yet paid yourself) then it is more painful but from your post above I think you are OK.

HA

[cojak]

In theory HMRC should have blocked the company closure if there was CT outstanding. Maybe they've just taken the tax out of the money they recovered; that would obviously be the common sense approach. But don't take my word for it.

HMRC = common sense?!? I wouldn't take HMRC's word for it either...

You might have to call your (now ex-)accountant.

[VectraMan]

Is it personal tax or Corporation Tax that you are referring to ? If its Corporation Tax forget it, its not your personal liability but the companies which no longer exist. HMRC are not going to chase you for that, now if you are referring to Personal Tax I feel your pain. The notifications from Companies House would have been sent to your registered office, which I presume would be your accountants address.

In theory HMRC should have blocked the company closure if there was CT outstanding. Maybe they've just taken the tax out of the money they recovered; that would obviously be the common sense approach. But don't take my word for it.

[Yonmons]

Is it personal tax or Corporation Tax that you are referring to ? If its Corporation Tax forget it, its not your personal liability but the companies which no longer exist. HMRC are not going to chase you for that, now if you are referring to Personal Tax I feel your pain. The notifications from Companies House would have been sent to your registered office, which I presume would be your accountants address.

[Habs]

It's not a terrible situation, but it's not great.

First you need to https://www.gov.uk/restore-dissolved-company which will cost you £100.

Then you need to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-fo...e-register-cb4

If it's all too much for you, go back to your accountant and explain what's happened. It will cost you but it's better than losing it all.

Thanks for your response. I got into contact with the BVD department today, and it turns out I cant do that option because i voluntarily closed the company. I can restore the company via court order but that would cost more than the amount i want to recover. I can apply for a discretionary grant from the BVD department by completing the CB2 form https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-fo...e-restored-cb2

However, the process seems pretty straightforward but when I asked how likely it would be that I would receive my money back I didnt get an answer. So i was wondering has anyone gone through this process before and been successful?

[NickNick]

It's not a terrible situation, but it's not great.

First you need to https://www.gov.uk/restore-dissolved-company which will cost you £100.

Then you need to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-fo...e-register-cb4

If it's all too much for you, go back to your accountant and explain what's happened. It will cost you but it's better than losing it all.

Yes, it appears I was missing something.
Idiot.

[cojak]

It's not a terrible situation, but it's not great.

First you need to https://www.gov.uk/restore-dissolved-company which will cost you £100.

Then you need to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-fo...e-register-cb4

If it's all too much for you, go back to your accountant and explain what's happened. It will cost you but it's better than losing it all.

[Habs]

I have had a pretty awful weekend, and i would really appreciate any advice. I worked for a year as a locum and was advised to set up a limited company and appoint an accountant. I had absolutely no idea on any of this and still dont to be honest. After i finished my first year I actually went back into University and currently a student, I decided to let my accountant know that Iwanted to file my tax returns and close my company down. My accountant then sent me a tax bill (~£2000) and told me to withdraw all my funds from my business account apart from the amount needed to pay the tax, and i should pay the tax soon and then close the account.

Now he did all this for me by the end of January, I then called HMRC in February to pay my tax, but was told they couldn't take payments over the phone as I was well within the deadline and would need to pay online. Since then I had a lot going on personally and also had exams and other pressures and basically didnt bother paying the tax until last this weekend as the deadline was approaching. When I tried transferring funds from my HSBC business account i received the news that my account had been closed and my funds trasnferred to company house. I was so shocked and could not believe what had happened, and basically had no notification from anyone that this had happened since May. I have been doing some research and it looks like that my money (which was owed to HMRC anyway) has been transferred to the "crown" and I need to claim it back.

I understand that there are two routes to go about this: Restore my company or apply for the discretionary grant. From what i understand as my funds are pretty small, i wouldnt need to restore my company as this is pretty expensive and would just need to apply for the grant from the treasury.

I was hoping someone could enlighten me on how bad a situation I am in? I mean its so ridiculous that I worked so hard to earn enough money to put myself through university and by leaving my tax money aside ive just lost it. Feels like I've been robbed.

Will the process to obtain my money be extremely difficult?

Any help would be appreciated