In May 2020, I applied for a £15,000 Bounce Back Loan, which was approved instantly. The funds were used primarily for lead generation as business had slowed due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, this strategy didn’t work, and despite my best efforts, I had to cease trading in November 2020.

In July 2020, I entered into a Trust Deed (the Scottish equivalent of an IVA). Shortly after, I submitted a DS01 to Companies House to dissolve the company, but the bank objected.

Below is an excerpt from an email I sent to the bank in October 2021, after multiple phone calls and emails explaining the situation. By then, this was the sixth time I had explained my position, as the bank continued to pursue repayment of the loan:

"The company has not traded now for nearly a year and is insolvent, with no income and no expected income. There are no funds to pay for liquidation and no assets.
I personally have entered into a Trust Deed, so I am now in a payment arrangement with creditors. This is largely due to the failure of the company in question.
I submitted a request to have the company struck off, but this was suspended in August—I assume this was your doing as there are no other creditors?
I was assured by one of your advisors that the debt would be dropped since the company is no longer trading. However, we seem to be going around in circles.
I have no way of entering a payment plan or making any other contribution towards this debt. The company is no longer trading, is insolvent, and unable to service its debt.
There was no personal guarantee required for this loan. Had there been, it would have been covered by my Trust Deed, and you would have recovered some or all of your money."

Click to expand...

Now, in 2025, the bank is still pursuing me for this loan. I’ve explained the situation more than twenty times, but nothing seems to change. The last update I received was that they would “check in occasionally” to see if there were any updates to my situation.

I even raised a harassment complaint last year, and they paid me £150 compensation, which seems an odd thing to do when pursuing someone for a loan.

At this point, it seems they have no intention of letting this go. I’m looking for advice on my options:

1. Should I appoint a liquidator to formally wind up the company?
2. Am I legally liable for this loan, given that no personal guarantee was required?

It’s my understanding that, since no personal guarantee was requested, the loan should remain a company debt, and the bank cannot pursue me personally. If they had required a guarantee, it would have been included in my Trust Deed, and they would have recovered some of the money.

The company has not traded since November 2020, but I did open a new company which is still trading. Is this company in any way liable for the other company's debt? I know this can be the case with VAT debts.

For context, when I took out the loan, I had no intention of entering into a Trust Deed. That decision was made after the business failed and was something I considered carefully.

And is now asking if we could pay him this VAT (we’ve paid this bill some time back. i’ve had this happen before I can’t remember the best procedure.
I’m thinking it would be easiest for him to issue us with a credit note to cancel his previous bill and just send us a new one.
The problem with that is that the tax point cannot then match the date of supply
I am aware that we could just say “tough luck, mate” but we have no need to do that.
Thoughts please

Hi

Looking for some advice

I have a two director company with no other emplyess and we are looking to do an MVL to close it down

I have a problem in that we want to do this before april as the % increases to 18% I believe, but I have a savings account for the business that is locked with no withdrawals until the end of April 2026

Is it possible to compete the MVL but retain funds in the business until they are then available?

So...
Complete MVL and complete everything before April and submit as 14% interest to pay.
Wait until the end of April for the saving account to complete and withdraw funds

I'm guessing this is not possible but the savings account are saying the money can't be released early.

Also, how long does an MVL usually take?

Many thanks

I am a sole trader running a mobile business, for over a decade now. I have always owned cars which have been accounted for as part business, part personal. Approx 80% of my mileage is business. I am wanting to buy a second hand camper van, which would replace my current car. It would be used day to day for my mobile service, although no overnight stays - as well as for personal use. I know that in general, the business percentage of the purchase cost of a second hand van would qualify for AIA. Could a camper van be eligible in this situation ? Or - even - is the fact that the van will have been converted into a camper van irrelevant ? Would it make a difference in accounting if the camper van retained it's original V5C/Log book LGV category - as opposed to being reclassified as a 'motor caravan' ? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm having trouble getting Professional Indemnity insurance. I tried to shop around but couldn't find anything. I talked to someone from Simply Business, and they told me that most companies don't offer Professional Indemnity services anymore.

What do you think I should do or look into next?

Our most recent business idea is to help smaller and medium enterprises, or individual users, go through contracts quicker. A contract scanner that takes the documents as a PDF and returns any notable clauses, pros and cons and highlights things you should maybe be worried about or seek legal advice on.

Obviously the main question we're receiving is why don't I just put it into ChatGPT? We trialed multiple contracts (employment, tenancy agreement, supplier agreement) with this and it seems to struggle with the size and generating a full report and would often crash out, plus there are the limits. It doesn't give a good breakdown of insights either. On top of that we can access more advanced models than the standard consumer giving better reasoned analysis. It's a full product designed to be used in a business setting.

Looking for feedback on the idea, so please feel free to be as harsh as you'd like, we're more interested in the negative comments.

We've mocked up an MVP in a short space of time but don't want to blatantly self promote so feel free to message us if you'd be interested in seeing it.

Hi,
Im a self employed window cleaner and get around £500 of my monthly turnover in cash. The rest is mainly electronic payments. I normally deposit all my takings into a business account then pay myself a set amount monthly, by bank transfer to our personal account. However, My business bank is starting to charge for cash deposits so I’m wondering if it would be acceptable to take £500 in cash and then the remainder of the set amount via bank transfer from the business account. This would mean that all the business takings would not go through the business account, but would that matter as long as I recorded it properly?

I entered my Ltd company into an MVL via an IP in August 2023 and I am still waiting on a final distribution from the IP for funds due from Corporation tax and VAT refunds.

The IP are claiming that the delay is due to the accountants not submitting these returns prior to the MVL commencing, even though I was assured this was taken care of. This was apparently taken care of eventually at the end of 2024.

The latest communication from IP in May of this year states that they have been issued with a partial refund from HMRC (A fraction of the overall total owed), they are chasing HMRC and would escalate to a formal complaint.

My question is do I have any options here other than to simply sit and wait?

Hi, just trying to get some clarifications regarding submission of final accounts when closing company less than 12 months into its current accounting period.

The online web filling service to submit accounts and CT600 does not allow changing of the year end date. Funny enough Company house is telling me no CH submission is required when closing company and accounting period is less than 12 month. Is that even a sound advice?

Will a Paid software allow my final submissions with account period under 12 months without changing Accounting Reference date at Companies house? I tried FreeAgent which comes free with one of company bank accounts but that just throws an error telling me I cant go through year end process under 12 months.

Is the only solution changing the reference date with CH first and then going back through the web filling service for both account and CT600 submissions? Or still require a paid software to open up all pathways that are not exposed in the web filling service?

Thanks

I am the accountant for a Community Benefit Society, which started trading in March this year.
We are a village shop created to provide the local area with a place to purchase food, drinks
and household goods. We are run by volunteers one of whom is an artist.
He is considering selling his paintings in the shop and giving the shop a commission. I have
checked everywhere for the VAT rate for the sale of original paintings but cannot find a definitive answer to my problem. I can find VAT rates for importing art, for selling and buying art at an auction, but cannot find any help regarding selling in the shop the local artists paintings. I should point out that the artist is NOT registered for VAT. I was going to propose that we display and sell the paintings through the shop and deduct the agreed commission paying the balance to the artist BUT cannot determine whether we need to charge VAT and if so what percentage?
The other option would I suppose be for the artist to sell the paintings direct when he is on duty in the shop which I am thinking should not include VAT as he is below the threshold and not VAT registered.
I would be extremely grateful if anyone can lead me in the right direction or at least help me to determine the VAT rate for the paintings.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give

Hi there! I have a problem with combating fake company pages on Trustpilot. Does anybody have the same problem?
The matter is that there is already 5 fake pages with almost the same name. And first of all they get reviews, so influence brand reputation, second - they put own links to almost same websites and steal our traffic and clients. I would really appreciate it if someone share the advice on how to stop it.

Hello, I am 14 years old and have recently started a small business selling goods on eBay. Since eBay requires account holders to be 18 or over, the account is registered in my parent’s name and linked to their bank account, with their personal details such as name and National Insurance number used for the setup. However, I am managing all aspects of the business independently and cover all expenses. Although the income is initially received into my parent’s bank account (due to eBay’s requirements), all proceeds are subsequently transferred to my own account by my parents. I am keeping accurate records of all income and expenses, and I plan to register for Self Assessment in my own name once my trading income exceeds the £1,000 trading allowance, so that I can declare and pay any tax due. My concern is that, because the eBay account is technically in my parent’s name (with their personal details attached), the income may appear to belong to them and could be treated as their taxable income instead of mine. Could anyone advise on how best to make sure HMRC recognises this as my business, and that the income is correctly attributed to me rather than my parent? Is this even possible given that the account is in my parent’s name but I would be the one filing the tax return? If not, I would greatly appreciate any advice on alternative tax arrangements that might work, other than having everything filed under my parent’s name. Thank you in advance.

Good day everyone,

If I rent half of my property to someone else what would the business rate implications? (I qualify for the small business rates relief)

Thanks

Hi all,
I am fully aware that most professional oven cleaners use diptanks, however I'm asking for opinions on whether its worth starting off without and using a lakeland tray and an immersion heater, or its too time consuming to do it this way. I have seen on many forums/social media platforms lots of people do this but for the time spent scrubbing to profit compared to diptank users is racking my brain as it seems the timescale to complete the job without is alot longer. I currently do domestic/commercial cleaning and would like to have this as an add on service.
I am looking at investing in a course so I have the knowledge needed, but also unsure if its something I could turn into doing all the time, so this is why I am asking about lakeland trays before I purchase a van and diptanks.
Thank you if you've read this far.

Lost a client 4 years ago and they've asked for some info back to 2018.I thought payroll was 3 years but accounts and tax 6 plus current. Is that correct?
If CIS, would that be the longer of the two?

When an owner withdraws some of their capital / equity from the business, I understand that it is a debit to the owner capital / owner's equity account, as you are reducing the amount of that account by the amount of the withdrawal.

However, why is that transaction also recorded as a credit transaction to the cash account? I thought the cash account, comprising cash receipts and cash expenses journals, represented your outstanding cash balance? Why would you credit the cash account when you've taken money out of the business and there is no tangible (intangible, if you're being pedantic) asset on the other end associated with it?

My understanding is that cash accounts comprise two journals, cash receipts and cash disbursements respectively, so is it more a credit to the cash disbursement journal in that case then? Or have I gotten that wrong?

I believe that debits decrease an account's amount and credits increase it. Unless I'm wrong there also. Happy to be corrected

Setting up PC in new room with no Ethernet

What is best way of making it wireless.

Looking online is a minefield with everything from £4 USB dongles to £70 PCIe WiFi 7 adapters being recommended.

What do I really need?
Just want reliable, no dropping, fast.

Is USB dongle not good enough, is £70 card overkill, what would people here suggest

Hi friends,
I’m setting up my business and just want to see your vision and advice or your feedback.
I’m gonna run renovation kitchen and bathroom business online. No shop or showroom to rent in the city, showroom is online. I can create website myself and I have experience in house renovation and kitchen installations and a bit plumbing and electrical stuff. But I want to be a project manager and just get leads and negotiate and even design for customer then give the job to subcontractors for the beginning and then slowly slowly build my team. I wanna supply kitchen and bathroom to my customers as well from Howdens, Samphony, Easy bathroom ect.
I’m looking forward hearing from you guys.
Thanks

I'm going through a NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Creating A Business Start-Up for fun and I'm kinda stumped by the following passage:

A sole trader business will not continue following the retirement or death of the owner, but the assets of the business can be sold to another person or organisation for them to use to run a similar concern.

Click to expand...

Is this saying that, if you're a shoe repair shop for instance, the equipment, upon owner death or retirement, should only be sold to individuals or businesses seeking to set up a shoe repair business?

A friend of mine, who never had a business before, bought a business from a friend of a friend.

It's a rental arbitrage business where he sublets properties, that part is fine but there's £50k of unpaid electricity/water/internet bills. My friend didn't look at any bank statements and there was no purchase agreement/contract so all of this came as a surprise. The previous director also failed to safeguard the tenants' deposits and withdrew the money.

What can he do as he is now being chased to pay for all the outstanding debts?

Hello

I am running a small single unit pizza restaurant with a turnover circa £500K in Lancashire. I have been running this for 5 years and the business is now well established with an excellent local reputation.

Looking to expand the business and having talked with my accountant we are considering setting up a new second business to purchase and run a pizza van. Setting it up as a separate business to stay under the VAT £90,000 VAT threshold for as long as possible.

My accountant has advised this is ok as long as the trading name is different. But obviously we want to benefit from our existing local reputation as much as possible. Therefore my question is how close to the sun can we fly. Clearly a different trading name, I've been told using the same staff and buying the ingredients and dough balls from the existing restaurant business will be possible so will having a link on our website to a separate website for the van but we have to make the distinction that they are different businesses e.g. "We recommend this pizza van for catering your event". Does all this sound above board and unlikely to be an issue for HMRC?

My accountant advised we may successfully trade like this for several years but the risk is HMRC could at any point do an audit and decide they are actually in fact the same business and backdate VAT due, how likely is this? What do we need to do to avoid this happening?

Do I need to consider minute details, e.g. the restaurant has branded pizza boxes, if we used these on the van would that be crossing the line? What about the staff wearing the restaurant uniform?

Thanks in advance for the sharing of relevant experiences and expertise.

I've recently launched my own business and I'm keen to understand - at what point does DIY stop being lean and start being limiting?

I’d love to know:

• Where do you draw the line between doing it yourself and outsourcing?
• Have you ever held onto something too long and it cost you?
• Or maybe you outsourced too soon and regretted it?

I keep hearing about the same pattern: business owners or founders trying to be the marketer, the accountant, the web designer, the HR team, the salesforce - all at once. I don't want to make the same mistake!

On one hand, there’s pride in being “hands-on.” On the other, there’s burnout, bottlenecks, and missed opportunities.

Is “doing it all” a badge of honour, or a hidden liability?

Has anyone had success with changing a business name on Companies House? It is an easy process?

When I started over 2 years ago, I was super niche, and chose a name to fit that niche, but over the past two years things have evolved. Officially as a Ltd Company I still have my original name, but I've been trading under my new name for the past year. It would be good to have my Bank Account name match this. Even though it's quite rare a customer will pay me directly.