17 Aug 2009 12:00 AM:

Will try to keep this brief & would greatly appreciate any advice on the following.

My partner had 2 SL companies which despite all efforts, collapsed towards the end of last year. Outstanding debts with the majority of our suppliers have been settled but we have an outstanding amount with social security for each company. One for 3,700 & the one for 3,200. This was the total debt to them when the companies were wound down in Dec 08.

We went to our labour assessor at the time to try & get some advice on how we should proceed with tackling this issue. Common sense told us that we should try to negotiate with them. She advised against this & said that as soon as we show our faces, they will expect some form of payment immediately. She also informed us that due to the current economic climate, the Government were giving a 2 year grace period to companies to settle outstanding Social Security debts. After this 2 year period had elapsed, she said it was 50/50 as to whether they even chose to pursue it. If they did, the amount would have grown to around 14,000 with fines after 2 years. As these 2 companies have pretty much cleaned us out, the opportunity to regroup & get the money together somehow over the next 2 years seemed like our only option. We accepted we'd have to take the hit on the fine & the increased amount.

The company bank accounts were embargoed virtually immediately at the time & a small amount of money was frozen. Question is, why has this happened if there is a 2 year grace period in place? Second question is, how do we know if the embargo has been extended to cover other company assets such as vehicles? Everything we have is currently for sale, including our house as with no income coming in, this is the only way out of this situation at the moment. The outstanding social security debt was for our employees at the time but is my partner as administrator of both companies liable for this? I understand with tax issues, it is much like a Ltd company in the UK where the company is liable rather than the individual. Are we at too late a stage now to transfer assets into another name so that we can ensure we can sell them & settle everything?

If anyone can help us shed some light on any of the above, it would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance. 

Thread: Social Security - Embargo of assets

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