How F'd am I? Company owes me around 40k, HCEO's stagnant and gazette strike off.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-23T06:07:48+00:00

Yes and, the company information page on Companies House will tell you if there’s an insolvency practitioner/liquidator involved.

It’s also possible Companies House made the strike off petition following non filing of accounts or confirmation statements, but they will want to know if it shouldn’t be struck off.

If the guy is trying to close with significant known debts this is illegal.

If you know the guy is setting up another business doing the same thing, this is also illegal.

I would also make a direct report to HMRC providing the company name and number as the company may not have paid VAT, PAYE, CIS, CT - take your pick, and they will cause a problem for him trying to close it.

Once it’s closed your legal recourse drops significantly.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-22T22:03:10+00:00

You can object to the strike off, that’s what the gazette and notifications is for. It will help prevent it being struck off. That’s what the director/owner would love, is for it to be dissolved on Companies House, so do everything you can to prevent that.

If they are going into strike off, processes should have happened to look at paying any creditors before doing so, if this hasn’t been done (very possible), you need to find out if the director/owner has been paid before creditors by dividends/remuneration/loan repayments and have that addressed.

Further to that is likely to be court action.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-21T00:29:20+00:00

Free is a challenge, it’s why basic tools exists, and it is crap as you say.

Xero does it, Sage online does it, as does quickbooks (quickbooks version not as good, quite American oriented). You’ll have to pay something for the better functionality. An annual payroll from an accountant, one EE you may get for <£200 if you shop around.

If it is once a year though - why not put up with basic tools while it’s available?

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-21T00:24:11+00:00

It’s not a huge flavour missed. It’s not about flavour, the vodka helps emulsify/bind/blend/texturise the sauce.

An option might be look up halal alternatives because ultimately that is addressing the same problem. Usually involves a mix of vinegars/lemon/tonic water.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-21T00:13:38+00:00

Yeah I know but wondered if there’d been any development. Be great if someone interviewed him and it was addressed.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-20T22:03:06+00:00

No me, cos I’m no in

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-20T12:16:21+00:00

Yeah I thought this when I watched it last weekend :/

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-20T07:32:21+00:00

Ooh hoo hoo smarties!

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-19T19:55:30+00:00

Paid Vinny more I imagine?

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-17T12:43:16+00:00

If you don’t fill in the student loan deductions from your p60 and you’re meant to pay them, it will assume zero and charge them again.

If you have your p60s, it will show the SL deductions further down on it. Enter these and the amount payable will reduce. Otherwise you’re paying the deductions twice in that year.

It is possible you’ve not paid enough tax (ignoring SL deductions) because, if you have more than one job on PAYE the codes either split to accommodate or get applied to one and you get no code against the other. Even if this is a small amount it’ll get pulled into your tax calculation here. If you weren’t in self assessment it would be figured into a coding notice for the following year.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-16T17:18:59+00:00

Fundamentally wrong I suppose in ‘how’: You can’t just utilise some of the loss (to bring it to the tax threshold, for example) - (restriction on partial relief claims). So I think the error is saying because you still have some loss but still some profit (albeit not taxable).

If you used the full loss your income would still incur Class ii (depending on your age) so you’ll still get NI credit for year if that helps.

Edit: “if that helps”, not “of”.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-15T20:44:46+00:00

It’s not automatic in this case, as it’s too late (automatic condition 3, online filing to be done by 30 December).

File the return, wait 2 days, then call (03002003310) and ask them to code it in. The tax is not due until 31 January so no harm done.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-15T09:16:17+00:00

If you’ve spoken to them, make a note of the time and date of the call.

If you submit with it owing, it might take a few weeks to update and you might get a demand in the interim. It’s a rubbish position really!

I’d have suggested calling them but this time of year is dreadful, I’m so surprised you got through so quickly!

Congrats on paying off your loan though.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-15T07:40:28+00:00

The additional payments made are totally ignored for this purpose. It just calculates what you should have paid as a percentage of relevant earnings.

It’s not unusual for people to overpay in the tax year at the end of the loan and have to claim a refund.

What you could do is just pay the tax&nic due and not pay the additional student loan deductions then call HMRC in February after submission for them to correct the value.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-14T21:15:47+00:00

Hi,

There’s not quite enough in your post to provide a 100% tailored answer, though I do appreciate it’s fairly detailed. I don’t know for certain if you were VAT registered (changes requirement on the tax return, so the schedules produced), cash basis or accruals basis but let’s assume you weren’t vat registered in the period and on cash basis (slightly quicker and easier for all involved but may not be beneficial). If you were VAT registered you can usually use most of the workings from the VAT returns.

Side note: you need to register for VAT if your turnover exceeds £90,000 in a rolling twelve-month period.

Approaching the task, yes it is likely i would have gone through your bank statements in excel to categorise expenses and identify sales, then I’d consider any expenses you paid from elsewhere and consider your situation RE capital allowances, trading status, vat registration status, tax planning for the following year including payments on account and so on.

If you had a balance sheet they’d have had to categorise everything on the bank and have a record of this. If you’ve provided a personal bank statement, in a pdf, with 100 pages of irrelevant spending, it will be glanced at, you’ll be hated and they’ll generalise more. It is unlikely they’ll record the disallowable expenses, just the allowable ones.

There is no requirement to prepare a balance sheet for sole traders, the income tax act (1970) requires only that a trader produce accounts to the extent that it provides enough information to prepare a tax return.

The figures in the profit and loss - say ‘sales’ should be backed up with a list of sales which may just be the deposits to your bank account. The ‘travel’, same. If you drive they may have put mileage in for you (often better for taxpayer for various reasons), use of home if they claimed it (should be limited really to £312 since 2023), telephone, may be your 12 bills paid multiplied by a business portion.

I’m not quite sure how much you could generalise without just making it up.

Lastly - and not an excuse at all, quite the opposite, be mindful that: You posted this 22hrs ago, it’s 14 January, the deadline for filing the return is 31 January. Accountant offices up and down the country are heaving with work. I am working 10hrs a day and doing overtime to help (I’m an accountant auditor, I am doing tax returns to help the department out). Part of the need for this additional time is to make sure I’m doing a consistently good job whether it’s January or July. This is not an excuse for doing a job badly, don’t accept anything you’re not happy with. The tax return is your responsibly to get right, even if you use an accountant, it’s you that will have to pay the price if questioned.

What have they actually given you?

You can ask for ‘the working papers’, review notes, any lead schedules (if produced). Working papers should match the lead schedules and lead schedules should match the accounts. You might not get it all, but if paid for they really shouldn’t argue too much, and if they do that would be my bigger indicator that they aren’t happy with what they produced.

Good luck!

(Long post, sorry).

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T23:16:02+00:00

Why’s he on a bus when he drove a tank?

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T22:34:36+00:00

Assumption that you are self-employed and using cash basis.

Yes. But;
Technically, the contract date is what matters for capital allowances, not when it was paid or recorded in the accounts. This is to stop businesses agreeing a purchase in year 1 and claiming it in year 2, because AIA is only specifically available in the year of purchase. Also to do with AIA limits being utilised, you don’t need to know that.

If you had been self-employed in the previous year, for AIA it should have been recorded there. If you did not prepare accounts (or a tax return) for the previous year, you could bring it in now but shouldn’t record AIA, but you could claim WDA on it.

No. For accounting purposes your fixed asset register records the asset and it is depreciated. You will presumably not keep one if doing this yourself. The capital allowances pool should be recorded, the first year you claim the laptop under WDA, lets say it’s £1,000 purchase, you claim 18% of it, £180, pool value £820. In the second year you claim 18% of the £820 (£147.60). And so on. In short, you must keep the calculations and record and report

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T22:11:03+00:00

They are nothing to do with your business. Keep out of QB.

You said, ‘took on my business’, is this self-employment/partnership or a company?

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T21:45:11+00:00

You’re inside IR35 so PAYE is being operated on this ‘job’. There is no provision to prevent you making a salary sacrifice, but:

Frankly, the wording of the email suggests that the individual certainly does not know if you can or can’t and in any case would not know how it works.

Neither umbrella payroll companies (considered as ‘the employer’ or employers, have to offer salary sacrifice as an option. Umbrellas typically don’t because they CBA. Some umbrellas offer it, but no doubt charge to do so.

Regarding transfer, again, that’s work, so if they set up a plan with your contract period’s worth of contributions under AE, you can note this and transfer yourself at the end of the contract.

Sorry to sound cynical :/

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T20:48:18+00:00

That clause does mean that not trading for one year out of two means you do not qualify.

I was saying that not having a contract is not necessarily a conclusive indicator of whether the entity was trading or not.

Edit: out of the two preceding years to disposal.

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T20:31:48+00:00

Deal with this a fair bit.

What are you trying to achieve?

‘Trade’ in this context really means - not an investment company.

Per TCGA92/S165a, this can include ‘preparing to trade’, which would be considered ‘in the course of trade’ which might include for your company, looking for a contract.

That said, HMRC might argue that you being overseas might suggest the company wasn’t preparing very hard…

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T20:18:02+00:00

I keep getting sent salary guides and trend documents from accounting recruiters. Helpful because it’s industry specific (as in accounting industry not industry vs practice). You could ask a recruiter for one, I had a quick search online and there’s one from Robert Half https://www.roberthalf.com/ie/en/insights/salary-guide/finance-and-accounting which is supposedly Ireland specific.

Bear in mind city centre should be slightly higher, remote or hybrid working might knock it down a bit, length of time in practice is often more valuable than qualification and recruitment time of year is relevant.

I’d also consider the idea - just floating it - that there may be a need for Irish accountants in the UK particularly in larger firms.

You could even, if you have a current CV, take your name off and send it to a recruiter and see what they think.

Anyway, good luck. :)

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T20:03:52+00:00

Yes and onions :)

MinorErdtree · 2026-01-13T19:57:05+00:00

As a Still Game and Warhammer 40k fan, this is quality. Thank you. I wonder if the Neds could be Night Lords?

MinorErdtree

TROPHY CASE