Reply to: Close Down Company

[7of9]

Account manager has changed the plan a bit, but it does make more sense. She suggested to withdraw the reminder money out now instead of waiting for the CT refund as previously advised. She also suggested to pay the 10 using personal cheque instead of the business bank account one, so the business bank account can be closed as early as possible.

New plan and I have done step1-3, just waiting for the accountant to finish the company account and file for refund of CT.


1. Paid the accountant the closing fees and accountant deregister me for VAT and complete a final VAT return. Get the VAT refund.
2. After company year end date, send all bank statements so accountant would then complete the year end accounts and tax return.
3. Withdraw the reminder funds from the business bank accounts. Leave the account open and leave some fund to cover the bank charge and possibly the cease company fees 10 pounds.
4. accountant would also let HMRC know I want to carry loss back. Once filed by accountant, HMRC will process the refund of CT and this will take up to 4 weeks.
5. Once the CT refund cheque has been received and in the business bank account, I can take out the fund and close the business bank account.
6. accountant will send me a DS01 form. I will need to fill this out and post back to her with a personal cheque for £10 made payable to companies house for the close down admin fee. They will then write to me to tell me the company has been closed.


I need to state the ER payments(in 3 and 5) on my tax return 17/18.

[Dan@OrangeGenie]

thanks

Its money in, believe me, they'll bank it quickly! The treasury process for liquidation will take around 3 months, you'll be fine.

[7of9]

Make sure the business account is completely empty before shutting the company down. You've got it covered in the process above. You've got shut business account last though. Just mentioning it.

thanks

[7of9]

Spot on!

I would close the busness bank account soon after the DS01 has gone off.

Companies House will air in the London Gazette on 3 separate occasions that the company is liquidating this gives creditors opportunity to appeal. This will give you the time to close, or better withdraw all funds and leave just the £10 in it for the cheque to close.

If the bank account isn't shut down and funds are left in it, the treasury will seize them when the company is wrapped up.

Its an absolute ball to get the money back, costs a bit too!

Thanks for the reply, Dan. I will empty the account and leave £10 in it for the cheque to close before I return the DS01 form to the accountant. My question is if I close the bank account soon after the DS01 has gone off, how is it guaranteed HMRC got the 10 pounds? silly question, but never in this situation before. thanks for the help.

[Dan@OrangeGenie]

Make sure the business account is completely empty before shutting the company down. You've got it covered in the process above. You've got shut business account last though. Just mentioning it.

Spot on!

I would close the busness bank account soon after the DS01 has gone off.

Companies House will air in the London Gazette on 3 separate occasions that the company is liquidating this gives creditors opportunity to appeal. This will give you the time to close, or better withdraw all funds and leave just the £10 in it for the cheque to close.

If the bank account isn't shut down and funds are left in it, the treasury will seize them when the company is wrapped up.

Its an absolute ball to get the money back, costs a bit too!

[northernladuk]

Make sure the business account is completely empty before shutting the company down. You've got it covered in the process above. You've got shut business account last though. Just mentioning it.

[7of9]

Week 3: Withdraw pension and pay company closing fees , the current balance is below £25K, waiting for the CT relief to be processed.

clarify actions to take at each stage with JSA:

1. accountant would deregister me for VAT and complete a final VAT return upon HMRCs request. Hence closing fees need to be paid before hand to get the VAT refund before deregistering VAT.
2. After company year end date, I will send all bank statements so accountant would then complete the year end accounts and tax return.
3. accountant would also let HMRC know I want to carry loss back.
4. Once filed by accountant, HMRC will process the refund of CT and this will take up to 4 weeks.
5. Once the cheque has been received and in the business bank account, I need would let accountant know the amount left and she would be able to tell me how to take this money from the company. Most likely I will take the remainder as a one off payment then state this on my tax return 17/18.
6. accountant will send me a DS01 form. I will need to fill this out and post back to her with a personal cheque for £10 made payable to companies house for the close down admin fee. They will then write to me to tell me the company has been closed.
7. close the business account.

Looks like the process will take at least another month or two... Am I missing anything?

My question is what sort of documents should I keep for records. All my information is on FreeAgent.

[7of9]

Dan, advice on this forum helps us:
1. Know some of the questions to ask.
2. Be aware of things an imperfect advisor (that's every advisor) might overlook.
3. Have a better chance to recognise we are talking to someone who is incompetent or (worse) just looking to take advantage of us.
4. See the kind of questions and advice that professionals (such as you and Chris) will ask / give, and so better recognise an expert when we are talking to one.
5. Find professionals who know what they are about, either by their involvement here or by referral (both of which happened on this thread).

Other than that, nice contribution!

(Obviously your point about getting personalised advice is well-taken. But forum advice and personalised advice can and should be complementary.)

Definitely! especially for those have bad experience with their incapable accountants!

[Dan@OrangeGenie]

Dan, advice on this forum helps us:
1. Know some of the questions to ask.
2. Be aware of things an imperfect advisor (that's every advisor) might overlook.
3. Have a better chance to recognise we are talking to someone who is incompetent or (worse) just looking to take advantage of us.
4. See the kind of questions and advice that professionals (such as you and Chris) will ask / give, and so better recognise an expert when we are talking to one.
5. Find professionals who know what they are about, either by their involvement here or by referral (both of which happened on this thread).

Other than that, nice contribution!

(Obviously your point about getting personalised advice is well-taken. But forum advice and personalised advice can and should be complementary.)

I have seen many a rouge out there and differentiating them is impossible, especially on a forum.

I'm passionate about this. We submit our business to the FCSA Accredited audit annually (Note, we're not an Associate, there is a clear difference, Accreditation requires an audit, Association you just buy the badge)

Our audit is annual by EY who submit our report to HMRC for transparency. This may put us at a commercial disadvantage but I sleep at night knowing my clients are being given advice that is in their best interest.

You can probably now appreciate my cautiousness but if you do your homework on suppliers and their 'badges of association/accreditation' then you'll know if advice is sound or not.

HTH

[WordIsBond]

You're mad getting advice on this via a forum, tax advice is always based around your future plans.

Dan, advice on this forum helps us:
1. Know some of the questions to ask.
2. Be aware of things an imperfect advisor (that's every advisor) might overlook.
3. Have a better chance to recognise we are talking to someone who is incompetent or (worse) just looking to take advantage of us.
4. See the kind of questions and advice that professionals (such as you and Chris) will ask / give, and so better recognise an expert when we are talking to one.
5. Find professionals who know what they are about, either by their involvement here or by referral (both of which happened on this thread).

Other than that, nice contribution!

(Obviously your point about getting personalised advice is well-taken. But forum advice and personalised advice can and should be complementary.)

[7of9]

Ah yes, that makes sense now!

I am with JSA, previously PlanIT. so much with the 24 hours response rules....still waiting...

[7of9]

If a Maslins client is considering their closure options, sure, we'll help advise as best we can.

If a client of some other accountancy firm approaches MVL Online and asks for tax advice, whilst we may give some generic information, our default response is to tell them to check with their accountant.

It should be your accountant, not the MVL provider, who knows the ins and outs of your company, it's history, your future plans etc and can therefore advise what's best from a tax perspective.

I appreciate the conclusion we came to via PM is indeed that for you, some dividend/pension to get net assets below £25k should work nicely. However a large part of this was because you'd been travelling for a while. Quite often people doing an MVL would be because they've gone into a permanent role, in which case the dividend side of it becomes far less appealing (bar using the small dividend allowance). Pension is normally viable, but means the money is tied up long term, and also you're typically limited to £40k, so again many situations where that wouldn't be viable.

When I come back to contacting in two years , I will make sure I get a good accountant Your help is much appreciated! Yes, my case is an odd one. People normally don't take a long holiday as I did

[7of9]

I'm all for getting further advice and delighted you've got some, I just think it can be very dangerous sharing so much info on a forum. The conversation can be very one sided, any good advisor would ask questions and look at all avenues.

However, delighted you now have a plan

I completely agree with you. If I had a very professional accountant, I probably would not seek help here. Too bad, I do not have one. So really glad I can get some help here.

[northernladuk]

the MVL COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE that her ACCOUNT MANAGER REFERRED OP TO is not an accountant - they are probably lawyers

Ah yes, that makes sense now!

[pr1]

I don't see that. Just for clarity I was referring to this line...

Then I contacted 2 MVL companies. The one referred by my account manager did not give any useful information. She refused to offer any basic information regarding the ER tax and said she was not an accountant and could not help on the tax figure.

If her account manager is her contact at her accountants and if so the bolded statement is pretty poor. I wanted to know what/who her account manager is.

the MVL COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE that her ACCOUNT MANAGER REFERRED OP TO is not an accountant - they are probably lawyers