www.iva.co.uk

I perviously run a business in oxford as a sole trader. my pervious personal tax bills were approx £300 in Jan and £300 in July. I sold my business in March last year (its a franchise) I have a accountant and a chartered accountant as part of my franchise agreement) I have been houding my accountant for a year now to give me an idea of how much personal taxt I would have to pay and he wouldnt give me any idea of this until the final wind up accounts had been done. These were then handed to the chartered accountant the same day as trhe tax return was due. Becuase my personal tax was so low pervious I was expecting approx £10000-15k tax bill.

However my accountant ahs given me a bill for £37,500 pounds! I asked the tax office if I could pay £500 to which they said no. I now own another busienss as a partner ship with my partner and own a house together. I was wondering if I can get an IVA to help me as Im currently stuggling to survie and need help especially when they wont accept the payment of £500 perweek

Ouch - that must hurt! But surely you had some idea of the amount which is actually based on profits generated?

If you are unable to pay the tax bill, and are insolvent, an IVA could be a solution for you, but if this is your only creditor HMRC are unliekly to accecpt. Do you have any assets which could be realised to help pay the bill - and importantly do you think the tax figure is correct?

From an accountancy angle, I cannot see if you are expecting any income in the following tax year. Does your tax bill include payments on account, because if so there may be an avenue to reduce these.

It's just a thought - but worth looking at.

Hi

I assume the £37.5 k is the Tax Bill, and not the Accountants bill? Which accountant is it - the one retained by you or that retained by the franchisor?

Have you been given a proper breakdown of the bill.

HMRC tend not to go with informal long-term deals. They tend to prefer a formal arrangement like an IVA even if they are the only creditor. They will need to be reassured however that they aren't simply giving you more rope to hang yourself with so the starting point must be to get some financial info together to show how you expect your new business to perform going forward.

Ian

Chartered accountants usually know what they are doing so i would be surprised if the figures were far out!
Perhaps they relate to capital gains tax on the sale of your last business?