Hello everyone,

I’m reaching out for advice as I find myself in a complex and emotionally draining situation. Despite being a business owner, my experience in this matter is limited, and many decisions I made were rooted in the trust I had for my business partner and friend. Here’s a summary of my situation:

In 2014, I started working at a limited company (a coffee shop) as an employee. A few years later, one of the founders (Founder A) decided to leave and sell her 30% share to me, while the remaining 20% was sold to the other founder (Founder B). This made me a 30% shareholder, and Founder B owned 70%. Both of us have been shareholders, directors, and employees since then. Over the years, we never established a shareholders' agreement or held formal board meetings.

About a year and a half ago, I decided to leave the company and informed my business partner (BP). We began with a business valuation, and to my shock, I realized that when I bought my shares, there had been no proper valuation—it felt more like I’d been cheated at the time of purchase.

Following the advice of our accountant, who insisted I couldn’t leave the company in any simple way (e.g., as a silent partner), we agreed to work hard for another year to boost the business value. During this time, I sought legal support due to my limited experience, but I’m now questioning the effectiveness of the lawyer I hired and have struggled to find a replacement.

A few key points to note:

1. When I initially bought my shares, it was 30% ownership of one unit. Later, we verbally agreed on a 50/50 split when we expanded to an adjoining unit.
2. Since the beginning of summer, I’ve been unable to work due to severe mental health challenges. Unfortunately, the bullying and mobbing I endured over the last 5–6 years have completely consumed me.
3. My relationship with my BP, which was challenging in the past, has now deteriorated to the point of being disastrous. I appointed my lawyer to act as a medium between us. However, since August, our communication has consisted solely of a continuous exchange of emails, with no real progress being made.

Here’s where things have taken a turn for the worse:

• My BP stopped paying my wages, which included a regular salary and dividends, and placed me on statutory sick pay.
• She then increased her own salary significantly, leaving no room for dividends, which has forced me to seek Universal Credit to support myself.

At this point, I just want to find a way to leave this business as quickly as possible. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will never recover the money I initially invested.

I’m here today to ask for your advice:

• How should I approach exiting this partnership given the lack of formal agreements?
• Are there strategies I should consider to protect my interests, even if I won’t recoup my investment?
• If anyone has experience finding a competent business lawyer, I’d appreciate tips on securing effective legal representation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any guidance or insights would mean the world to me.

We have tried to create a product that we believe is a cost effective way for small businesses to upgrade their cyber security. Instead of providing the implementation for a high price, we give a detailed document explaining to the business owner how to upgrade their current security posture, based off details they provide us with.

We're currently having difficulties selling to small businesses, it seems they believe they are not targeted by cyber security attacks or that if it does happen then it won't be that expensive, we've tried various different impactful stats such as:

• 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses
• The average cost of a data breach is £4,200 for SMEs
• 60% of small companies go bankrupt within 6 months of a significant cyber incident

But it appears that this is one of those things where currently people don't want to believe it happens or don't think it will do anything, until it happens to them. At which point they are wildly unprepared.

Does anyone have any tips or advice as to how we can get through to these small business owners? To convince them that a small investment of time and money is actually very likely to protect their revenue and also their time dealing with an incident down the line.

*happy to provide links to the statistics.

Hi all,

I’m a claimant in a £2.5K money claim against a small limited company. After issuing the claim online via OCMC to the company’s registered office (also a director’s correspondence address), the defendant failed to respond, and I obtained a default judgment. After I emailed the defendant a payment request, the defendant respond claiming they didn’t receive the claim form and are applying to set it aside.

The defendant's set aside application:
1. requests to set aside the judgment *without hearing*.
2. admits that they don't attend the mailbox in their registered office (a residential property) due to ongoing refurbishment caused by an issue with sewage/flood (the property is not in a city that has been flooded any time recently).
3. includes a witness statement with false claims that they asked me to use an alternative address, including alleged in-person communication.

I want to submit my witness statement with facts showing that the defendant breached the Companies Act by not handling their mail at the registered office. I have evidence, including photos of the mailbox overflowing with letters, no ongoing refurbishment, etc)

However, I’m concerned about the application requesting the court to deal with it "without a hearing". Should I expect the court to request my witness statement? Is there a standard procedure to notify the court that I would like to submit a witness statement? Or should I file it proactively somehow without court directions, if it is possible at all?

Thank you for your help!

I am the director of a small Film Production Co. Our productions normally last no longer than five days Not that I imagine the duration of the work has much, if any, bearing on the answer to my question.
Freelancers, some sole traders, others Ltd Co's are from the usual cross-section of skills found in a production.
Should we be checking each one's Right to Work and if so, by what process?
Incidentally all are paid by bank transfer into a UK bank account but as this happens after the event I think it's "after the horse"...
Plus I have a feeling one can have a UK bank A/C without either a UK passport or work permit.

I work for my dad's business. I am an employee, not a Director. In October last year, the business decided to switch accountants.

The old accountant didn't submit their final information correctly to HMRC, so instead of simply transferring me to the new accountant, their last RTI told HMRC that my employment ended October 2023, which it didn't. This has resulted in a tax refund of over £1000, that I will now have to pay back. I've also had ongoing problems reconfirming my 30 hours childcare this year, resulting in me having to provide further proof of employment. And more importantly, I stand to lose all my 14 years statutory redundancy in the event the business enters liquidation, which is currently very likely.

The business's current accountant has told me that because it's not their system error, I have to contact the previous accountant and ask them to amend their last submission. I have, they've apologised and told me they'd investigate it. I've heard nothing since and my HMRC portal is still showing the same info. I have also sent all my payslips and FPS submissions to HMRC, in an attempt to prove I didn't leave in 2023.

Am I in my rights to request compensation from the accountants for this error? All I am after is for them to put the problem right and cover the tax I will have to pay back, as I wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for them. I did check all my payslips and p60 at the time, before I accepted the refund in July and there was no obvious error. It was only when my 30 hours free childcare came into question that I started to become suspicious and had to do some investigating.

Thanks everyone for your imput to my previous question.


So my current situation is as follows

Small Ltd Company has been struck off & dissolved. This is after I walled away from the business following a total breakdown, lost our home, my wife & children and I eventually ended up homeless on the street, I was completely suicidal.

The business never filed accounts. My DL was c£70 - £80k and off the top of my head the business owed c£10 - 15k I. Corporation Tax.


My personal credit situation

I have decided, with the support of StepChange, to face into and deal with my unsecured credit, which stands at c£51k.

My current situation is that I live in rented accommodation, I have no assets and my only income is through Enhanced Disability Benefits & Motability. Due to the severity of my health and deterioration in my brain function & memory, I will never work again, i am aged 58.

As a consequence StepChange are leaning towards recommending me to opt for Personal Bankruptcy. I am happy to do this but I'm clearly still going to have the dark cloud of my now dissolved business hanging over me. I want to be free of anxiety & worry so I have decided to also deal with my business 'situation' at the same time, come what may!

Guidance required

I first need to rustle up the fees to cover my petition for Personal Bankruptcy.

However how do I, or what is the best way, for me to deal with the debt(s) owed to my now dissolved business?

Is there a way this can all be combined somehow, or do I have to try and deal with the Personal & Business debts separately, if so, how?

Hello there, new to the forum and just looking for some advice: Here's our situation.

We have a decades old family business which was inherited by two sisters, 50% shareholdings each and a Directorship each.

One of the sisters (Jill) worked (part-time) in an entry level manufacturing role but held the title and unfairly earned the salary of a Director, the other sister is my mother who held the title of Director and actually fully undertook that role taking all of the risk and all of the responsibility of running the business.

Jill has now passed away leaving all of her shareholdings to one of her children (Daniel), my mother wishes now to retire and leave her shareholdings to myself and my sister (who is a co-director with our mother), we would receive 25% shareholdings each, and as I am now practically running the business with my sister will become a Director in due course.

Daniel has shown no ability or interest in running the business and is a pretty unpleasant individual that we would rather not be in business with, his side of the family have other members working in part-time roles who are also lazy and unproductive, we can see history repeating itself here with Daniel insisting on becoming a Director and taking the associated salary (which will be in name only, as with his mother) whilst we do all the actual hard work, he's also going to be taking dividends for his 50% shareholding and this is going to become a very unfair situation.

There are historical personal issues with this individual as well, if something should happen to us we do not want our children to be associated with this character, we understand that a 75% shareholding would be needed for overall control of the company otherwise any disagreements with regard to the running of the business would end up in a stalemate, as we cannot achieve this we want to know what our escape options might be.

The business is and always has been profitable and we are perfectly capable of setting up a new business and carrying on by ourselves with the staff members that want to join us, but it is a shame to leave behind the business name and reputation and leave Daniel behind to destroy what was a great business and let down established customers; so ultimately we'd love to save the company, but.......if we cannot, then ideally we would like to initiate a Solvent demerger whereby the company was dissolved and assets shared, then we can start a new business and if he wants to, he can do the same.

Happy to answer any questions but if somebody might have a clue how else we might escape from this mess we'd really love to hear from you.

Thanks

Snoopy

Hi there folks,

I am employed and self employed and currently don't (and haven't at all to date) generate any income from my self employment. Should I pay class 2 NIC voluntarily as part of my self assessment return?

Thanks

Hi All,

Whilst ive been a member for a long time, ive not actually been in the position to need a website reviewed.

Would you mind taking a few minutes to review my website to highlight any glaring issues or points of concern.

Note this is a B2B and about cranes/lifting - so its not necessarily for the layman and I suspect that it is unlikely that a buyer of our services will need education on what we do.


Cheers,

Matt

I'm looking at adding a small store to one of my domains, no more than 12 products.

There is not massive traffic; rarely needs to update, more like set and forget.

It would be good to add a q and a section to each product, but it is not essential.

I'm thinking of using a subdomain and woocommerce.

Is this overkill, is there a simpler/better option.

Hi

With the Black friday and cyber Monday sales coming up I am looking to buy a printer for our Small Amazon FBA business I hae a few questions

1) What type should I go for Inkjet, Laser Jet, or Thermal ?
2) please tell me the preffered brands

My main use of the printer is for labels

Thanks

Hi, so I was on this forum a couple of years ago and I gathered some really useful information. Off the back of that I completely walked away from my business which was finally dissolved earlier this year has been struck off companies house.

I owed c£70 for my DLand c£15k in Corppration Tax.

I was in a complete & utter mess as everything I had ever lived for just fell apart, including marriage, children, house, work everything just went. I was in a total breakdown which eventually led to me trying to take my own life.

I'm in a better place now but only thanks to the benefits system and the church.

Anyway, I am being chased for my own personal self-assessment for 2022/3. I've avoided it until now but the penalties are mounting up and because I'm engaged with StepChange to help deal with my personal debts I am in a position where i have to submit my Self Assesment.

My questions are as follows:

My only income in that FY was from the aforementioned, now dissolved business in the form of my DL. So what do I put on my Self Assesment - do I simply put down the total amount of my DL, even though that was from aforementioned business? If not then it's obviously going to show that i had virtually no income in that tax year?

Any advice, experience etc would be so gratefully received.

Regards

Darren

I'm a UK agent for a large European company that wants to trade in the UK but does not want to have a UK entity but also wants to have some stock in the UK at a fulfilment centre
Can they operate in this manner ? clearly they would still need to pay corporation tax on profits

The model is as follows - Stock is sent from the European manufacturers in China into a UK fulfilment centre - The European company pay the VAT & duty and then goods are housed in a UK fulfilment centre until they are dispatched to one of the UK customers - When goods are ordered and dispatched - The European company processes invoice from Italy

So question is - how does the EU company manage the corporation tax element if they dont have a uk entity ? Is this possible ?

One query, I have a little confusion about this:
If I am overseas but have a LTD in UK. my LTD, is not a year old yet and does not generate less than £10,000 a year. It has not even generated 1000.
In such a situation, do I have to make any declaration anyway or not?
And in such a case, how would the declaration be done online and without the lack of institutionalized programs?
My tax would be 0% ?
Do I have to pay Corporation Tax?

And even if I do not have to pay taxes and it generates less than 10k pounds per year, the tax rate of 19% would be applicable? but where would this 19% come from?


Greetings

I remain attentive, thanks in advance.


Best wishes to all!

I am looking for a database style product to be used for stock control.
I simply want to be able to enter stock items as purchased recording stock number, quantity, purchase price, selling price, VAT rating and supplier. I also want to use the software to create stock check sheets and to key the resulting quantities to give me the net reductions(sales).
It goes without saying that I need this ideally to be free. Everywhere I look the offerings are much too broad as most are Epos or CRM type applications.
I am currently trying to develop an Excel spreadsheet but am having difficulty. Any help anyone can give would be gratefully received.

Hello,

Hope I’m asking in the right place.

I need some help with my business emails, something is causing outgoing emails to end up in customers spam folders or sometimes not arriving at all and it’s happening far too often, somethings not right. Can someone please direct me to where on UKBF I might look for/find someone who can help with this? I was hoping this might be a good place to look.

Thanks.

Can anyone explain how I could estimate what the increase in Business rates will be next year following the reduction of the Retail / hospitality relief from 75% to 40%? As far as I can tell we currently get small business rate relief but not the full amount, retail hosp relief and transitional relief. I have no idea in which order these are applied to the calculation so am unable to work out how much the reduction from 75% to 40% relief will increase the bill.

I have a decorating business, my mate has a kitchen fitting business. He uses my business to decorate the kitchens. When I personally carry out the works I purchase materials and charge him £200 a day Labour plus the materials. For example 3 days - £600 + £275.49 materials ... he will deduct my 20% tax from labour earnings and pay me that plus my materials so £540 + £275.49.

Sometimes I sub someone in to do the kitchen as I'm busy. They charge me £150 per day. So say they do 3 days that totals £450. I charge subby out at £200 a day. So I invoice my mate for the 3 days at £600 and pay the subby £450. My mate deducts tax on the £200 still leaving me with £30 earnt ... this seems wrong ... am I missing something or am I meant to do something else here ? As I believe I should only be taxed personally on £150 ( £50 per day earnt off the subby ) which should leave me with £120.

Just slightly confused or is that for the tax return ? Please any advice welcome here

We are a small VAT registered company based on a UK Island.

We have customers come from the mainland to use our services and we offer the facility to book their ferry travel for them. When we purchase the tickets for non freight travel it is zero rated.

If we then charge the customer on their invoice for this travel can I resell at zero rated? We never make a profit on this, it is just charged at whatever it costs us

I've searched the VAT Notices and it is not clear. Has anyone any experience with this?

Thanks
Louisa

I jointly own a freehold rental property with someone who was made bankrupt. We owned it as joint tenants. Since the bankruptcy I’ve been solely managing this property (managing tenants, collecting rents, maintenance & paying the mortgage) The property has one title, a btl mortgage & comprises of 2 flats.
I provided accounts to the trustee in bankruptcy(TIB) who had beneficial interest in the bankrupt owners share.
I wanted to sell the property but there would have been a loss after CGT was paid. The property is currently making no profit & upcoming maintenance costs are likely to create further loss.
The TIB has just disclaimed his share in this property due to all the above as it is onerous.
I am struggling to know how to proceed.
I understand I can approach the crown for a vesting order but have no idea how this is done and would I be wise to do this with the help of a solicitor? I haven’t yet managed to find a solicitor who can help me. What are my chances of getting a vesting order ?
I also want to know once the property is disclaimed does the other joint owner’s name come off the legal title and if not how do I go about getting it removed. Can this be done as part of the vesting order? My other question is what are the implications regarding CGT if I get a vesting order agreed ?
Finally how is all of the above likely to work with the current lender ? The mortgage on the property is the mortgage that was taken out with the bankrupt joint owner many years ago. They are aware of the bankruptcy and TIB and the mortgage has never been in arrears.
Thank you for any advice you might be able to offer.

I'm currently the sole director of a small ltd company which has been trading for 8 years.

In the last couple of years, profits have dipped and we have made a small loss. We currently have small outstanding debts with some left to pay on a Bounce Back Loan, a credit card that's overdue (it's a business card but I'm personally liable for it if it goes unpaid) and HMRC. The HMRC bill is for a late filing penalty that wasn't paid. We didn't believe we should be liable as we have an accountant who is paid monthly and is the one who gets the reminders etc. We felt that they were liable. This hasn't been resolved and has now doubled as it's been passed on to a third party.

We do alot of work in the community and would like to continue to do this but need to change the business structure to make it viable, and so we are compensated for this work.

We have successfully received small grants in the past as a freelance artist in the community. We would like to expand on this work and take on bigger projects but we can't apply for Funding as a ltd company. As a CIC we can apply to Creative Scotland, National Lottery, Local council for grant funding.

We have premises and our lease is up for renewal next month and the landlord doesn't mind if it's a different company name or structure.

From speaking with different funders and organisations, it seems that showing that you have been established for a number of years is definitely more fabourable than being newly established.

Therefore, I am unsure as to whether I should liquidate the original company and set up a new CIC or whether I should try and convert the existing company to a CIC and try and make an agreement with creditors.

I know it is possible to convert to the CIC if we complete the necessary paperwork but not sure if this is the best option especially as there is outstanding debt and at the moment we don't have the money to pay them.

Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated.

Hi,

We are a small family run business and have been pretty successful with domestic clients, but want to step things up!

For context, we are a carpet cleaning business based in Bristol, UK.

For us I feel like the next step is to engage with businesses and tender for commercial contracts.

I have been doing some cold calls, but this hasn't been particularly fruitful.

We are happy to offer value, and really believe in our expertise, but I haven't really found anywhere 'offline' to showcase our work to commercial clients.

We are ramping up our social media presence, but in the meantime any advice from other cleaning/ service based businesses about local business events and fairs in the UK would be great to hear as I can't seem to find many that would be suitable for a business like us.

Any comments, questions and feedback are welcome.

Thanks for reading!

My private ltd co has no employees and I am only the director.
My son's school is offering a 1 -week work experience and I am considering using his help for some limited task to do with IT.
What is involved in this type of hiring?
Do I need to contact the local council of the registered office? Or where we live?
What's involved in paying him a salary?

Rds,

I am preparing to launch our baby product, which has undergone the comprehensive EN71 testing, which it passed and therefore ensures our product is compliant with the EU and UK toy safety standards and confirm they are safe to use.

I want to ensure I fully understand my personal liability and responsibilities in the event of any issues or incidents related to this product (despite the extensive safety testing mentioned above), as it is proving hard to secure Product Liability Insurance as I can’t get my manufacturer to agree to full rights of recourse (they are based in China).

Specifically, I am looking to understand:

• The extent of my personal liability if I proceed to sell the product without Product Liability Insurance
• How I ensure my activities fall under the work of the Limited Company, and not me as an individual

I would appreciate advice on the above, TIA!