hi all out there , not sure if this is the right place for me to bring my troubles , but hopefully one of you out there will have some experience of what im currently going through. i jointly opened a buisness (ltd company) with a so called friend ive known since school days as a favour but hadnt seen for a few years prior. he done all the registering etc himself through companies house using my home address. this was to help him get paid as a self employed person through a contract in a private bank in london. all mail was forwarded to him , and monthly he would come up to birmingham and i would withdraw the money for him.i waqs assured all tax would be paid and that he was keeping reciepts for accomodate and all other things. this contract finished , he moved out to sussex to work for another firm. ive been sending all letters from hm revenue and customs and companies house to his forwarding address but he no longer uses the account we opened.

im now getting alot of letters for revenue and customs and this week been told i have a 100 pound fixed penalty. ive no contact with this so called friend , and really getting in a state with this.

really not sure what to do....police ? solicitor ? revnue and customs ?

would really appreciate any help or advice on this as i dont where to start , never mind where this could finish.
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First things first are you a director of the company. You can check on companieshouse website for this. If you are not a director and he has merely used your address then there should not be a massive worry.

It is likely though that he has made you the director and not himself for exactly this purpose, so on that basis the most sensible course of action would be to pass what you have (bank statements & personal recollection of transactions) to an accountant and ask them whether there seems to be any skullduggery or any tax due. Also ask what the most sensible way to close down the company would be. The worry here is that there are unpaid creditors also, but if you were the sole director of the company I would hope you would know (even if you were being told what to do by your "friend").

In the possibility that there is nothing massively untoward going on apart from tardiness, your accountant or yourself may be lucky enough to get the late penalty removed with some grovelling and some decent excuses. HMRC can be accomodating if you are clearly not abusing the situation.

Thats about all from the superficial view, you will need to do some digging to have all the information to hand before you get a better picture. Are these large sums of money we are talking about here?
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really not sure what to do....police ? solicitor ? revnue and customs ?

would really appreciate any help or advice on this as i dont where to start , never mind where this could finish.

an accountant first maybe - find out more about the limited company and see what you are liable for.

If you are a director / shareholder then there will be some sorting out to do :(
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Not wanting to kick you when you are down as you obviously realise your mistake but why did you agree to this?

I have to say it all sounds fairly suspicious to me aside from the fact that he could be trying to use you as his patsy.

Why was the money drawn in cash? If you are the director (and worse still, shareholder) then there may be an awful lot more to pay than the ?00 late filing penalty.
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thanks for the feedback , you seem to paint a slightly better picture for than i ! with regards to your questions , when trhe account was first opened we were joint directors , but after a few months for some reason i quite cant remember he said it would be better if i was sole director of the company. i suspect i was fed further bull about this in the way that i believed when i came to sell my house in the new future to move , i would get a better mortgage to get a nicer house.( feeling gullible again here !)

the money that went through the bank was roughly 70,000 pounds. i dont think any creditors are involved , as surely i would have recieved some sort of infomation on this , or would have appeared on bank statements ?

further advice would be greatly appreciated , and once again , thanks for the help so far.
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Oh dear - you really do need to get an accountant. As a director you are responsieble for the accounts etc, see here:

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gba1.shtml

What responsibilities does a director have towards Companies House?

Every company director has a personal responsibility to deliver statutory documents to Companies House as and when required by the Companies Acts. These include, in particular:

accounts;
annual returns; and
notice of change of directors or secretaries or in their personal details

Get some advice asap
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Who holds the shares?
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Who holds the shares?
If you don't know, you can check online via the Co House webfiling system, you can order current company information.
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If you want to post the company name or number (or PM it to me if you prefer), I will let you know exactly what was filed and when - so at least you have the full facts when deciding what to do next.

At no charge, obviously!
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thanks for the interst and concern zeno , as far as i know theres no such thing as shareholders but i really do no nothing about this. was just seemingly doing a friend a favour although i did sense a little risk
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thanks for the interst and concern zeno , as far as i know theres no such thing as shareholders but i really do no nothing about this. was just seemingly doing a friend a favour although i did sense a little risk

Do not delay, and get an appoitment with your accountant.
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as far as i know theres no such thing as shareholders

unless the company has been set up unusually, such as limited by guarantee, there ARE shareholder(s).
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thanks for the interst and concern zeno , as far as i know theres no such thing as shareholders but i really do no nothing about this. was just seemingly doing a friend a favour although i did sense a little risk


You really do need to get some urgent professional help to see what the situation is here including your personal responsibilities which if left unattended could land with a hefy fine
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Even for a non accountant this thread has a certain air of disbelief to it. Can anyone really be that gullible? Will justice prevail? Is it all an elaborate scam?
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Even for a non accountant this thread has a certain air of disbelief to it. Can anyone really be that gullible? Will justice prevail? Is it all an elaborate scam?

There is always someone - programmes on TV show this. e.g. lonely women swindled out of life savings by Toy Boy. Oh if only I had some life savings then maybe a toy boy might come along :D:D:D
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Maybe I could scam some gold digger into thinking I was rich... worth a try.

Anyway:-

There is up to ?4k of tax due here with no chance that any has been paid. I would be concerned that they will come after the OP for this as I get the impression there is no money left in the account for this.
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Even for a non accountant this thread has a certain air of disbelief to it. Can anyone really be that gullible? Will justice prevail? Is it all an elaborate scam?

That's what I thought at first but I suppose some people really do take things at face value and if the OP thought he was helping out an old friend he may have ignored the warning signs.

I hope his helpfulness hasn't landed him with a massive bill.
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That's what I thought at first but I suppose some people really do take things at face value and if the OP thought he was helping out an old friend he may have ignored the warning signs.

I hope his helpfulness hasn't landed him with a massive bill.or in jail for money laundering
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or in jail for money laundering

This was actually the first thing I thought of when I read the post but didn't want to scare anyone!! :eek:
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Sorry to read your troubles...
Why did'nt your friend setup their own company in their own name.
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hi all out there , not sure if this is the right place for me to bring my troubles , but hopefully one of you out there will have some experience of what im currently going through. i jointly opened a buisness (ltd company) with a so called friend ive known since school days as a favour but hadnt seen for a few years prior. he done all the registering etc himself through companies house using my home address. this was to help him get paid as a self employed person through a contract in a private bank in london. all mail was forwarded to him , and monthly he would come up to birmingham and i would withdraw the money for him.i waqs assured all tax would be paid and that he was keeping reciepts for accomodate and all other things. this contract finished , he moved out to sussex to work for another firm. ive been sending all letters from hm revenue and customs and companies house to his forwarding address but he no longer uses the account we opened.

im now getting alot of letters for revenue and customs and this week been told i have a 100 pound fixed penalty. ive no contact with this so called friend , and really getting in a state with this.

really not sure what to do....police ? solicitor ? revnue and customs ?

would really appreciate any help or advice on this as i dont where to start , never mind where this could finish.

Depending on the nature of the relationship between the company and the private bank, HMRC may actually have the option of persuing the bank for unpaid tax (which I'm guessing is what has happened here). You really need to go see an accountant ASAP.
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