How dodgy is this?

How dodgy is this?

Didn't find your answer?

Not a client of mine, would just like some confirmation of this though.

Ltd Company, 2 directors.  The father of 1 partner is an accounant (not qualified)

Has a lease in the name of the Ltd Coy, two directors are also named as is the father as joint guarantor.  30k p/a, for 5 years, no break clauses

The company has a substantial level of HMRC and other debts

In 2010 they could not afford to pay the staff, so issued 4 of them with B shares of circa 15,000 of 2p each, split between them.

In the accounts to 2011 there is a transaction that shows Goodwill introduced at £60,000 (non ammortised and not present before) and a note that says

"The company has introduced a goodwill revaluation during the year of £60,000.  This represents the value of the customer base which the company has built up and maintained"

The director's can no longer work together so I suggested to one of the director's (not the accountant's daughter) that the B shares were illegal and that the company could not generate goodwill internally and that the company was worthless.  The other Director has asked for a payoff and their names to be removed from the lease.

The response in the letter with the accounts and tax computations from the accountant regarding these concerns was

" you will appreciate the transaction with regard to goodwill compromises the staff selling their personal goodwill relating to the their customers to the company in exchange for B shares, which is a perfectly legal transaction and then you revaluing the goodwill from £20,000 to £60,000.  This has enabled the dividends to be covered and avoided the director's loan accounts becoming overdrawn and although this is a slightly mute point i am happy for this to pursue this on this basis"

The £40,000 was added into the P&L as a goodwill revalution and disallowed on the tax computation.

The staff did not declare a capital gain on their tax returns, nor have signed any paperwork.

I'd appreciate this transaction is illegal and confirmation that I'm not going mad.  Also if it is a dodgy as I think it is, where can I report an unqualified accountant to at HMRC?!

 

Replies (4)

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By stephenkendrew
15th Jul 2011 16:12

revaluation

Surely the opposite entry to increasing the goodwill would be to credit a revaluation reserve. This cannot, however, be used for the purposes of dividends since it does not represent realised profits.

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By RobIBSS
15th Jul 2011 18:02

agreed

Hi Stephen,

This was my thoughts, but they are arguing that it was bought from the staff.  This wouldn't be company goodwill then would it?

All very dodgy,

 

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
15th Jul 2011 18:46

Yep

Complete crock of stuff on many levels.  If nothing else you can't generate or revalue goodwill in accounts.  They can buy it of course but if they were the company's customers how on earth could the goodwill associated with them be bought from anyone?

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By RobIBSS
18th Jul 2011 11:14

Cheers Paul

Thank you for your response - a man of my own heart, you don't hear many people using the word Crock!

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