Insolvency technical update – August 2020
By David Menzies, Director of Practice
3 September 2020
Insolvency technical update – your round-up of recent developments in insolvency
Coronavirus
This update relates to matters not directly linked to the coronavirus crisis. For coronavirus updates please go to the regularly updated A-Z of all things insolvency amid the coronavirus outbreak.
HMRC – insolvency appointments
HMRC’s Enforcement & Insolvency Services (EIS), Edinburgh, are refreshing the list from which they nominate Insolvency Practitioners as interim liquidators in Scottish liquidations and other similar appointments.
Further information for existing IPs on HMRC lists, as well as for those wishing to be added, is contained in an HMRC Insolvency Guidance note.
HMRC - incorrect rate being used for corporation tax
HMRC has issued a guidance document as a result of some insolvency practitioners submitting corporation tax returns for periods ending after 1 April 2020 using an incorrect rate for corporation tax.
IPs are asked to ensure that they are using the correct rate for Corporation Tax on all returns submitted.
HMRC - introduction of Digital Mail Service (DMS) into Enforcement & Insolvency Service
HMRC has now introduced Digital Mail Service (DMS) across all of Debt Management’s, Enforcement & Insolvency (EIS) Teams. Correspondence is now digitally scanned and can be worked on by teams across HMRC.
A guidance note has been issued and Insolvency (VAT Notice 700/56) has been updated with the latest contact details for each of HMRC’s EIS teams.
Scottish Courts – electronic submission of documents
All documents in relation to new and existing cases in sheriff courts should generally be lodged electronically. Only in exceptional circumstances (which require to be set out in a covering letter), or where a sheriff so directs in advance of a hearing, should documents be lodged in hard copy.
Relevant email addresses and information in relation to format and naming conventions etc. is available for each Sheriffdom in the ‘Coronavirus: Orders, Guidance and Practice Notes’ section of the Scottish Courts website.
Breathing Space
The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 were laid in draft on 15 July 2020 with a view to implementing the government’s new statutory breathing space scheme in England and Wales.
The Regulations were considered in an earlier article on icas.com, and a further article will shortly be published comparing breathing space against the moratorium available to assist individuals in problem debt in Scotland.
Redundancy payments – form HR1
The Insolvency Service has updated form HR1, used to give advance notification where 20 or more redundancies are proposed. It has also issued an accompanying guidance document.
Companies House compulsory strike off process
As advised in last month’s technical update, Companies House has announced that it will restart the process for companies that have applied for voluntary strike off from 10 September 2020.
Companies House has now further advised that, from 10 October 2020, it will resume the compulsory process to strike off companies it believes are no longer carrying on business or in operation.
Dear IP 108
Dear IP 108 has been issued by the Insolvency Service. Included in the update are details of the Companies House insolvency document upload service and information regarding the refreshing of the list from which HMRC nominate insolvency practitioners.
Judicial Factors consultation
An analysis of responses has been published in relation to the public consultation following the Scottish Law Commission's recommendations and draft bill to modernise judicial factors, which ran between 28 August and 20 November 2019.
AiB experimental statistics publication
Publication dates for upcoming Scottish Statutory Debt Solutions (Experimental Statistics) editions are available to view. The experimental statistics contain summaries of the latest monthly estimates on Scottish statutory debt solutions in Scotland.
The August 2020 edition will be published at 9.30 am on 9 September 2020.
Legal update
Secretary of State for Business, Energy And Industrial Strategy v Rahman [2020] EWHC 2213 (Ch) The Secretary of State brought proceedings to seek disqualification of the defendant as a director. It was the claimant’s case that the defendant had been a de facto director of a restaurant business. The High Court found that the Secretary of State had failed to prove that the defendant had ever been a de facto director of a company.
AWPR Construction Joint Venture and others against Everprime Limited (In Liquidation) t/a Sky Blue and others An action for multiplepoinding to resolve a dispute between the defenders as to which of them are true creditors of the first pursuer.
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