[Spotfree]

I am thinking of sacking off being a LTD and just going as self employed again.

I registered as LTD in 2018 as I was employing a lad and had plans of keeping it going, It never worked out and its just been me and the wife ever since. My accountant has always strongly advised me to stay LTD, I think it may have been more benefit to him than me.

The accountant is costing £33.00 per month for payroll and £1400 at the end of the year.

He says that being LTD is more tax efficient for me, I have always liked having a wage and paying tax etc each month.

I think the cost of the accountant is outweighing any tax savings, by far, I think it's time to De register from LTD and go back to being sole traders. Start doing the books myself and use quickbooks or similar.

Anyone else done this?

Where do I start with the whole process?

Thanks

[Smudger]

firstly - ask him to show you where the savings are as a Ltd as to those being self employed
after all he works for YOU

I don't think its a hard process - I think a declaration you are dissolving  the Ltd company

https://www.gov.uk/closing-a-limited-company

Darran

[deeege]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

[Spotfree]

firstly - ask him to show you where the savings are as a Ltd as to those being self employed
after all he works for YOU

I don't think its a hard process - I think a declaration you are dissolving  the Ltd company

https://www.gov.uk/closing-a-limited-company

Darran

I think his angle is this, the company owes me a lot of money from the sale of the company, which saves me a lot of corp tax.

I dont think the savings in corp tax justify the cost of being  a LTD Co for me in my situation.

He's obviously way cleverer than me and I imagine could paint any picture he likes of the situation and me being me wouldnt be able to tell the difference.

I dont care about the money owed to me by the company, especialy if it means I need a chartered accountant to benefit from it.

[Spotfree]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

[Smudger]

you can change accountant ant any time you like - as said he works for you not the other way round - however if he's done the work already you will still need to pay him/her

Also they may hold back your accounts until you pay the bill

Darran

[Smudger]

firstly - ask him to show you where the savings are as a Ltd as to those being self employed
after all he works for YOU

I don't think its a hard process - I think a declaration you are dissolving  the Ltd company

https://www.gov.uk/closing-a-limited-company

Darran

I think his angle is this, the company owes me a lot of money from the sale of the company, which saves me a lot of corp tax.

I dont think the savings in corp tax justify the cost of being  a LTD Co for me in my situation.

He's obviously way cleverer than me and I imagine could paint any picture he likes of the situation and me being me wouldnt be able to tell the difference.

I dont care about the money owed to me by the company, especialy if it means I need a chartered accountant to benefit from it.

Not sure I follow this bit....

[deeege]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

Tbh with sums so small you’ll be fine just applying for a strike off. Companies house will put a notice in the London Gazette and and company that is owed by you can ask the strike off not to happen if they wish. Over such a small bill I’d be very surprised if anyone bothered.

[Spotfree]

Ive just called hime and been straight, he says he can talk me through the process of de registering etc etc no problem, but I need to consider the changes coming next year to self employed people.

Apparently the self employed will need to do their books 4 times per year, he reckons this will cost way more to have done for us, alternatively very time consuming to do myslef ?

I just tried finding some info online and cant make sense of it!

[Spotfree]

firstly - ask him to show you where the savings are as a Ltd as to those being self employed
after all he works for YOU

I don't think its a hard process - I think a declaration you are dissolving  the Ltd company

https://www.gov.uk/closing-a-limited-company

Darran

I think his angle is this, the company owes me a lot of money from the sale of the company, which saves me a lot of corp tax.

I dont think the savings in corp tax justify the cost of being  a LTD Co for me in my situation.

He's obviously way cleverer than me and I imagine could paint any picture he likes of the situation and me being me wouldnt be able to tell the difference.

I dont care about the money owed to me by the company, especialy if it means I need a chartered accountant to benefit from it.

Not sure I follow this bit....

Me neither! Apparently when we went from being sole traders to LTD , we sold the business to itself and it now owes us that sum, which apparently we can draw from the company tax free! Thats my "understanding". Im dumb AF in this area !

[Spotfree]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

Tbh with sums so small you’ll be fine just applying for a strike off. Companies house will put a notice in the London Gazette and and company that is owed by you can ask the strike off not to happen if they wish. Over such a small bill I’d be very surprised if anyone bothered.

I'll only owe my accountant his fee, and corp tax. I suppose as long as the accountant dont mind we'll be ok!

[NWH]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

I know it may be tuff but this is why I’ve always said you need cash in the bank to employ like you are as am I to employ properly,unfortunately these unexpected costs come up guaranteed so you need to be able cover well over and above certain incoming bills.
Umpteen people doing it the wrong way or the way you’ll never hold on to anyone any good with 0 or limited hours contracts,waste of time you’ll never get anyone any good going down that route.

[Spotfree]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

I know it may be tuff but this is why I’ve always said you need cash in the bank to employ like you are as am I to employ properly,unfortunately these unexpected costs come up guaranteed so you need to be able cover well over and above certain incoming bills.
Umpteen people doing it the wrong way or the way you’ll never hold on to anyone any good with 0 or limited hours contracts,waste of time you’ll never get anyone any good going down that route.

Have had no interest im employing since 2018,  Im happier on my own doing a good job amd earning a living.

[deeege]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

Tbh with sums so small you’ll be fine just applying for a strike off. Companies house will put a notice in the London Gazette and and company that is owed by you can ask the strike off not to happen if they wish. Over such a small bill I’d be very surprised if anyone bothered.

I'll only owe my accountant his fee, and corp tax. I suppose as long as the accountant dont mind we'll be ok!

Will you have filed the accounts for the period that the corp tax is due for? If not then I wouldn’t file them prior to the strike off application if paying the bill is a problem. Not very ethical of course but you may have no option.

[Spotfree]

I did exactly this, and for all the same reasons as you, back in 2018.

As long as you don’t have any outstanding debt or corp tax to pay, it’s a really simple process. Companies house put a small ad in the London Gazette which gives notice and then a couple months later the company is dissolved.

My accountant has just picked up my end of year and is currently working on it, my tax bill will be along shortly.

Only problem is this last week the van has been off the road due to MOT failure which has cost £1500 plus a week off work, which means the bank is now flat. So when the bill comes in I wont have the cash to pay for it, although the accountant always recommends waitng till the last minute to pay which is normally by Jan- I wont have his money either!

 So if I cant De-Register until the bill has been paid then I guess I'm stuck for now. Does that mean I cant sack off the accountant yet?

Tbh with sums so small you’ll be fine just applying for a strike off. Companies house will put a notice in the London Gazette and and company that is owed by you can ask the strike off not to happen if they wish. Over such a small bill I’d be very surprised if anyone bothered.

I'll only owe my accountant his fee, and corp tax. I suppose as long as the accountant dont mind we'll be ok!

Will you have filed the accounts for the period that the corp tax is due for? If not then I wouldn’t file them prior to the strike off application if paying the bill is a problem. Not very ethical of course but you may have no option.

Thanks, ethics arent high on the priority list right now!

[Stoots]

One thing to consider is needing to close your bank account.

I went Ltd in 2018 and have often thought about going back to sole trader, things were a lot simpler when i did my own sole trader accounts than they are now with Ltd. Money wise there really nothing in it, a few hundred quid a year either way, at least at my income level....

One thing that put me off though is having to close my bank account and issue customers a new one, would be a nightmare.

[Spotfree]

One thing to consider is needing to close your bank account.

I went Ltd in 2018 and have often thought about going back to sole trader, things were a lot simpler when i did my own sole trader accounts than they are now with Ltd. Money wise there really nothing in it, a few hundred quid a year either way, at least at my income level....

One thing that put me off though is having to close my bank account and issue customers a new one, would be a nightmare.

The vast majority are GoCardless, I could live with closing the account.

[Stoots]

One thing to consider is needing to close your bank account.

I went Ltd in 2018 and have often thought about going back to sole trader, things were a lot simpler when i did my own sole trader accounts than they are now with Ltd. Money wise there really nothing in it, a few hundred quid a year either way, at least at my income level....

One thing that put me off though is having to close my bank account and issue customers a new one, would be a nightmare.

The vast majority are GoCardless, I could live with closing the account.

That would  make it even worse wouldn't it ?

They would all have to set up new mandates.

Its do able of course just a headache I had the pleasure when I went ltd of changing accounts and it was months of people sending payment to closed accounts.

Another thing to consider is that technically you can't just stop trading as ltd and switch your customers back to sole trader. I think there's complications there with who the customers belong to and some transfer of goodwill or something. I don't know exactly but its more complicated than it seems at least to do things above board.

[Smudger]

Good will?
Try not to over complicate things…

I think the only possible issue might be van/equipment but as your selling/transferring to yourself I don’t see that as an issue


Darran

[Stoots]

Good will?
Try not to over complicate things…

I think the only possible issue might be van/equipment but as your selling/transferring to yourself I don’t see that as an issue


Darran

I'm talking about doing 100 % above board. A good accountant should know that.

I agree, I wouldn't personally bother and take my chances but I think it's worth knowing exactly what is required by law .