LTD Co. broke! options

HashSlinging

A mate of mine is at his wits end, he was trading as a LTD Co for three years and never paid a penny tax. He's not very business savvy and I said I'd ask here what his options were, basically his accountants fecked him over and never done his books and one thing led to another. his words not mine. He's working perm with another co as an employee and dosent want to end up in prison! Any advise for this guy.

lomb

HashSlinging wrote:

Any advise for this guy.

Leave the state:D
seriously, i think a boards member keyser sore does some accounting stuff, so maybe enlist his help.
i think he want to submit accounts for the last three years tbh.

Pataman

Without a doubt get another accountant. If he owes tax contact the revenue, explain the circumstances, and they are generally quite sympathetic.

leeroybrown

I would suggest that he talks to a different accountant, a solicitor or another financial adviser (I can't remember what specific groups of people are obliged to report tax fraud). You can get away with non payment of tax in the short term as the Revenue only get around to auditing small businesses every 4 or 5 years but he will be audited at some stage. He should really find out what his liability could be and based on that get some sound financial advice as to how to deal with the situation.

Prison is extremely unlikely but a very expensive tax settlement including penalties would be the norm. The more upfront you are the less expensive it ends up being.

Sponge Bob

HashSlinging wrote:

He's working perm with another co as an employee and dosent want to end up in prison! Any advise for this guy.

what happened his Co. Ltd ?

HashSlinging

Dont know I dont think hes done anything with it TBH. Just got a perm job and forgot about it, he's in his current job over a year.

Nuttzz

just file the returns as soon as and pay any cro fine, the fees and fine will probably have to come out of his own pocket though

Carb

He can't bury his head in the sand. He going to need to submit audited accounts for the last three years, file all his CRO forms, get all the tax forms up to date, and ascertain what liabilites are there. Unfortunately, as he is the company's director, he could be personally liable, as there's no point telling the revenue my accountant was supposed to do it. Then there is the possibility after all the paperwork has been filed of either filing for bankruptcy or putting money into the company to clear the debts and filing for voluntary liquidatiion. I used to work in a small practice where we seem to be forever doing work like this and the amount of work involved is serious, so beware, nobody is going to do it for free. If you can't find anyone on here to help, send me a pm, and I can give you the details of the practice in Dublin where I used to work. It was only a small place trying to start off, so his fees were usually on the lower side.

Kinetic^

First of all tell this guy to get himself a new accountant & quick. There's no point in leaving things go any further. Its going to cost him a couple of grand to get sorted. If you would like me to refer somebody, give me a PM.

If he hasn't done anything with the company then he may not have a liability, but all his past returns will still have to be submitted, even if they do have 0 on them.

He's also due to send abridged accounts to the CRO for the past few years, he's going to incur penalties on that too.

Tell him to get his books back off his accountants (if they still have them).

Also, he should relax, if he hasn't been trading he'll be ok. He might get a slap on the wrist from the revenue but that's it.

If he has been trading and all the money is gone, then tell him to start saving.

If it's just him he'll have PAYE/PRSI for himself, VAT (if he was registered) and possibly CT if there's a taxable income.

Just a quick thanks to Lomb there for the reccomendation too.

Carb

Keyser Soze 5 wrote:

Also, he should relax, if he hasn't been trading he'll be ok. He might get a slap on the wrist from the revenue but that's it.

If he has been trading and all the money is gone, then tell him to start saving.

Judging by the original post, the guy traded for three years. Long enough to create a serious problem.

I wonder was he registered for VAT, or if he needed to.

Kinetic^

Carb wrote:

Judging by the original post, the guy traded for three years. Long enough to create a serious problem.

I wonder was he registered for VAT, or if he needed to.

Well it seems to have been lying dormant for the last year anyway.

Carb

Keyser Soze 5 wrote:

Well it seems to have been lying dormant for the last year anyway.

Ouch, thats at least four years paperwork

Kinetic^

Carb wrote:

Ouch, thats at least four years paperwork

Sure his acountants will probably end up getting more money then the revenue with all the work they've to do

But on a serious note, just tell him to get a new accountant asap so the company, if he's not going to continue with it, can be put into voluntary liquidation.

kluivert

Accountants have a duty of care and not a responsbility to the clients of limited companies.

Companies act states it is the responsibility of the Directors to ensure proper books of accounts and prompt and timely returns.

This is a one way stream in which your friend shoud seek an alternative accountant and produce the outstanding audited accounts, submit relevant details to revenue and cro and as Keyser said voluntary liquidation.

My question are:

Why did he set up a company if he wasnt business orientated?
Why did he not chase up reminder notices from the Revenue and the CRO?

Id be very surprised if his accountants didnt write to him to notifiy him of outstanding returns.

If so and this is the case then ok the accountants in question need to be bought to question on this and should you have any complaints they should be made to the registered accounting body in which the firm is afflitated to.

Max CRO fine is €1200 per return.

MartMax

my advise is get to another accountant and do not try hiding from the Revenue. but not totally surrender himself. some strategies and proper advice will help him to cleaning up the "sins". bear in mind, unpaid taxes are still a liability but doing the right thing can ease some pain in the future.

HashSlinging

the cro.ie web-site has the company as dissolved, from the end of april last year.