Liquidating a LTD - Assets
Discussion
After 16 years of contracting, I've taken the plunge and accepted a permanent role. It's an amazing opportunity and genuinely very excited about it. I have a few more invoices to submit to my current client and then will start to look at liquidating.
Have any of you Contractors-gone-Perm done this and how easy is it to sell company assets? I looked at MVL Online and their checklist of things to do before involving them included selling off any remaining fixed assets. From the people I've spoken to, I've had a range of opinions that as all my 'assets' (some are actual assets £1100 laptop which is 16 months old and some cheap items that were a couple of hundred quid, desk, printer, docking station etc), are relatively worthless and just office stuff, It gets written off, to having to depreciate everything and pay market value for it.
What did you do when you liquidated?
Have any of you Contractors-gone-Perm done this and how easy is it to sell company assets? I looked at MVL Online and their checklist of things to do before involving them included selling off any remaining fixed assets. From the people I've spoken to, I've had a range of opinions that as all my 'assets' (some are actual assets £1100 laptop which is 16 months old and some cheap items that were a couple of hundred quid, desk, printer, docking station etc), are relatively worthless and just office stuff, It gets written off, to having to depreciate everything and pay market value for it.
What did you do when you liquidated?
First piece of advice is - talk to your accountant.
Second piece of advice is - you're probably overthinking this. To the company, that laptop is now effectively worthless. If the company sold it to you for £100 that would be a reasonable deal. Same goes for the rest of the stuff - just buy it for a nominal sum. Your account should be able to advise what is appropriate. A laptop does not have to be an asset - it's more than possible that you expensed it - i.e. the cost hit your accounts in one go, rather than being spread over 36 or 48 months.
If you have a lot of cash in the company, then I can recommend MVL online. You need to get the company affairs totally straight before you can use them. If you've taken out too much cash then it's worth taking a bank loan to enable you to square up the accounts, and then using MVL online. Alternatively there are people who will deal with more complex situations, but you pay through the nose for the "convenience". Use your current accountant, get the company affairs as simplified as possible - and remember, given that you're doing an MVL it might be worth reversing out some recent transactions as the MVL is more tax efficient than most other options - then engage with MVL online.
Second piece of advice is - you're probably overthinking this. To the company, that laptop is now effectively worthless. If the company sold it to you for £100 that would be a reasonable deal. Same goes for the rest of the stuff - just buy it for a nominal sum. Your account should be able to advise what is appropriate. A laptop does not have to be an asset - it's more than possible that you expensed it - i.e. the cost hit your accounts in one go, rather than being spread over 36 or 48 months.
If you have a lot of cash in the company, then I can recommend MVL online. You need to get the company affairs totally straight before you can use them. If you've taken out too much cash then it's worth taking a bank loan to enable you to square up the accounts, and then using MVL online. Alternatively there are people who will deal with more complex situations, but you pay through the nose for the "convenience". Use your current accountant, get the company affairs as simplified as possible - and remember, given that you're doing an MVL it might be worth reversing out some recent transactions as the MVL is more tax efficient than most other options - then engage with MVL online.
omniflow said:
First piece of advice is - talk to your accountant.
Second piece of advice is - you're probably overthinking this. To the company, that laptop is now effectively worthless. If the company sold it to you for £100 that would be a reasonable deal. Same goes for the rest of the stuff - just buy it for a nominal sum. Your account should be able to advise what is appropriate. A laptop does not have to be an asset - it's more than possible that you expensed it - i.e. the cost hit your accounts in one go, rather than being spread over 36 or 48 months.
If you have a lot of cash in the company, then I can recommend MVL online. You need to get the company affairs totally straight before you can use them. If you've taken out too much cash then it's worth taking a bank loan to enable you to square up the accounts, and then using MVL online. Alternatively there are people who will deal with more complex situations, but you pay through the nose for the "convenience". Use your current accountant, get the company affairs as simplified as possible - and remember, given that you're doing an MVL it might be worth reversing out some recent transactions as the MVL is more tax efficient than most other options - then engage with MVL online.
Thanks Omniflow, definitely overthinking it! I spoke with a liquidator this afternoon. They said the same as you, use the accountant to get the house in order first. They did say in their experience, not that it's their area, nobody cares about the expenses, it's small fry stuff not worth worrying about and can probably be written off as it's of no value but the accountant will advise more on this. Everything has been expensed as the company has cash in the bank so I have bought everything in one hit, usually by myself from my own account and then reimbursed myself from the business account.Second piece of advice is - you're probably overthinking this. To the company, that laptop is now effectively worthless. If the company sold it to you for £100 that would be a reasonable deal. Same goes for the rest of the stuff - just buy it for a nominal sum. Your account should be able to advise what is appropriate. A laptop does not have to be an asset - it's more than possible that you expensed it - i.e. the cost hit your accounts in one go, rather than being spread over 36 or 48 months.
If you have a lot of cash in the company, then I can recommend MVL online. You need to get the company affairs totally straight before you can use them. If you've taken out too much cash then it's worth taking a bank loan to enable you to square up the accounts, and then using MVL online. Alternatively there are people who will deal with more complex situations, but you pay through the nose for the "convenience". Use your current accountant, get the company affairs as simplified as possible - and remember, given that you're doing an MVL it might be worth reversing out some recent transactions as the MVL is more tax efficient than most other options - then engage with MVL online.
MVL seemed to be the go to place on ContractorUK so had been looking at their services as they get good reviews.
Thanks for the advice and further recommendation for MVLOnline!
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