MICRO BNC money owed

[HoneySuckleDreams]

I'm currently in the MICRO BNC regime (2nd year now). I did some work in the UK last year via a UK agency and have been chasing them for late payment (since last June). I've finally had a letter saying they are having their current financial position reviewed and looking at a restructuring of the business, i.e. they've gone belly up.

All in all, it's about 15% of what i earned last year.

Is there anything I can do on the Tax declaration to compensate for this loss? I know if I was in the UK working as self-employed then the accountants could offset the loss. However, i'm not in the UK.

Or, as i haven't received the money (or likely to), just not declare it? What is the legal position of this? (maybe I should have posted this in the legal bit of the forum...or the finance bit)

I feel rather agrieved by all this, as the agency had been paid by the end client for my time, but decided not to pass this onto me.

This is just more nail in the UK coffin for me. I've had just about enough of the rip-off attitude from UK businesses...from landlords not fully giving back deposits with a shrug and a "sue me then" attitude. To the jewellers who "fixed" my wifes engagement ring but gave it back having shaved of bits of gold everywhere hoping I wouldn't notice until after i'd got home. ( i didn't...she did ) What has become of Great Britain?

Sorry about the rant

Any help re: income declaration would be appreciated.

Thanks

[P-D de Rouffignac]

Sorry to read your story, nothing worse than dishonest clients refusing to pay. I have found the County Court system easy to use and fairly effective in Britain, and have always won.

If you are talking about your French income tax return (Jan to December 2009) then I presume you have not declared the amount owed as 'received' (ie your invoice paid), and as you suggest it will not appear as 'income received' and your overall income will sadly be down by 15% - and  your tax will be correspondingly reduced.

Best regards, P-D de R.

 

[Will]

Unfortunately the penalty for opting for one of the simple micro regimes is that tax and cotisations are based on turnover, not profit, so even if you make a loss you can still be liable to pay. Whether the tax people in France determine turnover by invoice values or receipts I am not sure; if the latter - as P-D suggests - is the case, you could be OK in that respect.

I have successfully used a UK debt collection agency from France to obtain money due from a UK client - I would advise you to take action as soon as possible, because once bankruptcy proceedings are under way your chances of being paid reduce drastically. I managed to get a good proportion of what I was owed, several others in similar positions lost out very heavily.

[dragonrouge]

Hi if you go to Her Majesty's Court Service web site scroll down and I think it is MoneyonLine you can issue for relatively small amounts a County Court summons.

It is worth a final throw of the dice.

[Polly]

If the money hasn't come in during the year then don't put it down as income, thus reducing your turnover and hence your cotisations.

However do make a note in your accounts as to why you have done this, as if you have a fiscal control they may want to know about it.

If you eventually get the money in full or in part then declare it as part of your turnover for that year, and again make notes referring back to the 2009 invoice.

[Sunday Driver]

http://www.auto-entrepreneur.fr/comptabilite.php

Les entreprises placées sous le régime micro (dont auto-entrepreneur) doivent tenir un livre-journal détaillant les recettes ainsi qu’un registre récapitulatif par année, présentant le détail de leurs achats. Les entreprises peuvent enregistrer les opérations à la date figurant sur le relevé bancaire ou postal.

 

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Many thanks for the adivce.

I will go with the money received bit as the option to take for declaration purposes, as i normally declare converted GBP->EURO on the day I receive the money into the bank. Nothing received, nothing to declare.

dragonrouge - I had already started down the solicitor route who sent them a letter demanding payment or else. I will wait and see what the Finance company do with the re-organisation of the business before going down the CCJ route. We had discussed a winding up petition, which is rather more expensive, but a bit more of a guarantee of being on top of the list if it does all go harry hatstand on me. Even armed with a judgement there is still no guarantee of receiving anything. I await with hope!

.

[steviebee]

Hi crazyfrog sorry to hear that you were ripped off. same thing happened to me and my brother about 5 years ago. Took the guy to an employment tribunal (took 3 months) we won our case and he was ordered to pay us the several thousand pounds he owed. He informed the court he had gone into liquidation, result we could not get a penny out of him. It turned out he owed a lot of money to the tax man as well. Not much help I know and if the company you worked for has gone belly up, you as the employee are a long way down the list for getting paid. I cannot remember the figures now but we had a breakdown of the costs of the company who carried out the liquidation and I think they charged something like £80 an hour for the office junior. suffice to say once they grabbed what they could nothing left in his business for anyone else.

regards

Steve.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Here's an update. I would laugh if I wasn't grinding my teeth so much.

Director of the company owing me money set up another company just before Xmas then liquidated the old company. At the creditors meeting it turns out he took 670K out of the business last year in remuneration and dividends. Plus gave 100K to the other director who then quit (still outstanding loan). Overall debt to 70+ creditors....647K. Nothing we can do without concrete proof. There is an outside chance that the liquidators report is bad enough for him to be prosecuted and his new company has to cover the debt of the old. But we (the creditors) are not holding our breath. The laws an ass.