As a shareholder of a company, you can expect to receive annual dividends. These are a distribution to shareholders of the company’s profit, which are normally paid from the company’s retained earnings. However, as a shareholder you may receive what are known as liquidating dividends. But what are liquidating dividends and when would a company [...]
It’s hard enough coming to terms with the fact that, as a company, you are struggling with debts and have been classified as insolvent. Usually a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) is the right option and if the company has assets it can sell, i.e. machinery, equipment or even premises, they can be sold to pay [...]
Debt consolidation and debt counselling – these two terms can often be misunderstood. In reality, they are different. Debt consolidation is a physical solution to a debt problem, often in the form of a loan. Debt counselling, on the other hand, is a service for individuals, partnerships and businesses struggling with debt and not sure [...]
When a creditor lends money to a company, it is taking a risk. Whether the creditor is a bank or other lending institution, a credit card or mortgage provider, bond purchasers or utility companies, or an individual, director or shareholder, lending money is a risky course of action, particularly if the debtor defaults on payments. [...]
Insolvency and bankruptcy - it’s confusing to know which applies to your business. Whilst the two are similar, they are also very different and don’t mean the same thing. Insolvency is when a company or an individual can’t pay their debts on time. Bankruptcy is the legal process that follows when an individual has been [...]
Not paying back your debts is not an advisable course of action. However, if you decide to go down this route, it’s best to know where you stand and what your legal rights are. Most of the time, your debts will be chased down by a debt collection agency but sometimes, it is the creditor [...]
If you’re experiencing debt problems on an individual basis, and you have your own business, you may have been threatened by creditors that they can target your business for personal debts. In some circumstances, creditors can make a claim against your business to recover their debt. However, if you have a limited company, it is [...]
Being in a position where you’re unable to pay your company’s creditors is extremely stressful. In an attempt to avoid increasing the level of debt, many companies try to negotiate directly with their creditors and agree to an informal arrangement. If the debt is quite small and owed to one creditor, and the creditor is [...]
It’s a worrying time for creditors when a limited company goes bankrupt or enters an insolvency process. The biggest concern, particularly for the smaller unsecured creditors, is whether they will ever receive the outstanding debt owed to them. There is a predetermined order in which creditors are paid during the bankruptcy or insolvency process, according [...]
Last year there were 3,883 company insolvencies in Q1 alone and that figure doesn’t include those that went into administration or entered voluntary arrangements. In the UK, when a company goes bankrupt, which is called liquidation, it stops trading, is wound up and then taken off the register at Companies House. Insolvent limited companies go [...]
