#businesses being pushed into administration is on the rise, but perhaps most interestingly the agent of bankruptcy in a large number of cases is the #HMRC.
While other creditors may find it hard to enforce repayments on troubled firms facing multiple challenges, from the #costoflvingcrisis to #energy prices hikes, the state (in the form of the #tax inspectors) has all the powers it needs to get itself at the front of the queue of creditors... a sign of the times?
Many years ago, just after the Y2K problems had (or in some cases hadn't been) solved, I couldn't find any computer contract work in the UK as most companies had exhausted their IT budgets fixing Y2K. I was offered work in Brussels so I took it.
Anyone who has done it, will know that moving from one country to another is highly stressful and very disruptive. Somehow, in the process of doing that I forgot to put in a tax return and in due course I was contacted by someone claiming to be the inland revenue. In fact it was that lowest, foulest scum of the earth, a firm of debt collectors! The were working for the Inland Revenue but the way they phrased their spiel, they made it sound like they were from the HMRC. More or less every time they phoned, I said I was unable to pay the sum they were asking for immediately but would be happy to pay the sum off monthly which offer they invariably refused, parroting the phrase "if you don't pay immediately, we will bankrupt you". This went on for several years.
They kept on adding sums to what I owed them including adding tax 'estimates' for years when I hadn't even been living in the UK; finally they sent local bailiffs to my house in Belgium. When I spoke to my accountant in the UK about it he said they are claiming you owe them £50,000+, in reality you owe them less than £10,000 however the time I will need to spend to prove that to them will cost you another £5,000, so do you have around £15,000 looking for a home as, if not, I'd bankrupt yourself then you don't owe them a penny piece.
That's exactly what I did and, as the High Court of England have no jurisdiction outside the UK I was never obliged to pay them a single penny!
The thing that really annoys me is that I offered repeatedly to pay by instalments and that offer was refused not by HMRC but by the foul scum working for the debt collectors pretending to be HMRC. By the time, found out that the debt collectors were not, in fact HMRC it was too late, they had already put the bailiffs in; that left me with no choice other than bankruptcy.
However, my accountant at the time said that HMRC are frequently irrational, stupid and stubborn. They often refuse offers of arrangements to pay even when it is abundantly clear that the exchequer would be far better off accepting such an arrangement than by bankrupting the debtor. I'm sure in many cases this is exactly what is happening today!
Many years ago when I was sorting out the mess my father had go the family company into, I had to settle an outstanding with Customer & Excise as was...
They refused to accept payment by instalments, but each month Is sent them a cheque for a fraction of the debt, with a covering letter.
Each month I got a polite letter enclosing a receipt, detailing the amount still overdue & a statement that they didn't accept payment in instalments... each month the same for tow years!
Whilst I was very relieved when was I told at the High Courts of Justice in London that Mr Justice Jacques (memorable name as I was living in a French speaking country at the time) had declared me bankrupt whilst I was having a jolly nice lunch at the rather quaint pub over the road, I felt a pang of guilt for all of 10 seconds as I could have paid the debt off had they only been sensible about the sum I owed and accepted an arrangement. However, my hatred for the gobby clerk assigned to my case was much amplified when I phoned their office and told them that I had been declared bankrupt to which she replied "You can't do that - I won't accept it"
I couldn't help saying "So you, a jumped -up, low grade civil servant, consider yourself a higher authority than the High Court in London. You carry on with your nonsense and I'll contact the Official Receiver"
@Paulos_the_fog @ChrisMayLA6 Reminds me of how HMRC missed out on admit £8k that I legitimately owed them because they chose to wind up my ltd company over a £10k "debt" that was entirely down to their incompetence rather than me not paying.
I'm also currently fielding letters about non-payment of a self assessment tax bill I have explained, in detail, twice, that I have in fact paid, including the acknowledgments *they've sent me*.
But sure, Starbucks, Google et al get to make deals 🙄