Get Your Outstanding Debt Paid Before the End of the Tax Year
Research in early 2020 (https://themoneycharity.org.uk/money-statistics/) revealed how almost two-thirds of working-age Brits – just short of 27 million of us – kicked off the new year in debt. 9 million of those face a personal debt of £2000 to £10000, and almost five million of us owe more than ten grand in loans and credit. At the same time UK corporate debt may be about to hit a crisis, as predicted by The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/30/corporate-debt-could-be-the-next-subprime-crisis-warns-banking-body) in summer 2019. As they said:
“Citing the US and the UK as the worst offenders, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in its annual health check of the global financial system that a dramatic rise in borrowing in recent years by businesses with low credit scores meant the market for corporate debt was becoming increasingly unstable.”
The sixth of April 2020 is approaching fast. It’s the start of a fresh new tax year. This is your chance to claim the money you’re owed by individuals and businesses. This is also a great time to pay off any debts you owe, your chance to begin the new tax year in great financial shape.
Why it’s good to get your finances in shape before a new tax year
As a debtor, the first reason for paying back the cash you owe before the new tax year is simple. It’s peace of mind. Unless it’s money owed that you’re happy to pay off gradually in the long term, having a debt hanging over your head isn’t much fun. It plays on your mind, it wakes you up at night, it won’t let you relax. Whereas starting fresh without owing a penny leaves you free and clear, a great feeling and – if it’s a business debt – one that can inspire you to greater things. Maybe 2020 is the year you want to grow your business. If you need funding to help you grow it’s easier to get when you don’t have business debts to pay off. Get rid of current debts to help you make wiser borrowing decisions in future.
If your business is actually owed money, this is the perfect time to get it sorted out once and for all, so you don’t have to account for it when you do your tax return. It’s a good way to keep your financial life simpler.
Options if your business is owed money
If someone owes you money, or you’re owed money by a business, you can either use a mediation service, go to court, send a statutory demand, make the person bankrupt, force liquidation or hire a professional collection service like Rutherford’s.
Mediation involves someone impartial who is trained to handle difficult discussions between opposing sides, acting like a referee and keeping everything cool. There’s a fee but it tends to be a lot less than the amount you’d need to pay a solicitor and it costs less than taking court action.
Court action involves making a claim in court for your money. It’s useful when mediation fails. You can claim online for debts less than £100,000 that are owed by no more than two people or two organisations, and the court can demand that the debtor repays you.
Making an official demand for money you’re owed involves a ‘statutory’ demand. If the person or company ignores your demand you can then apply to a court to either make them bankrupt as long as you are owed £5000 or more by an individual, including sole traders and partnership members.
Company liquidation – if you and any other creditors are owed £750 or more – costs a lot of money and you might not get it back. Get legal advice first. To reclaim your money from a bankrupt person or liquidated company, you need to register your claim to money so if there’s any money left over to pay off debts, you get a share of it.
Professional debt collection
We carry out professional debt collection for outstanding, unregulated debts with no previous legal action or judgement against them. First we might carry out a credit check on the business to confirm they have enough assets to make our actions worthwhile.
We will recover your debt in the best way possible for you and your business. We’ll do it as quickly as we can. And we treat everyone concerned with respect, protecting important relationships from damage. That’s why we only set up payment plans with customers that are likely to be successful – there’s no point creating an agreement that the debtor finds impossible to meet.
Once we’ve negotiated an agreement we’ll monitor it, staying in contact with the debtor to support them and ensure your money gets paid. We transfer payments direct to your account once the bank has cleared them.
If we don’t collect, there’s no fee. If we do, you pay 20% of the collected amount. And because we always match a case with the right type of debt collector, someone experienced in that type of debt or debtor, we have a high success rate.
Call in your business debts before 6th April 2020
If you’d like to kick off the 2020-21 tax year in great financial shape, call us in to help you deal with debts professionally, discreetly and in a way that doesn’t wreck valuable commercial relationships.
