Any registration, license or permission you hold in connection with your work or trade might be affected by the making of the bankruptcy order. You should inform the person who issued the registration or authority of your bankruptcy to establish if it will remain in force or will be cancelled or withdrawn. Any value attaching to these items may belong to the trustee. In considering this issue you should disregard items of a personal nature such as a driving license.
Your Business In Bankruptcy
If you are self-employed, your business is normally closed down and any employees are dismissed. Any business assets will be claimed by the trustee unless they are exempt and you will have to give the Official Receiver all your accounting records. You are still responsible for completing all tax and VAT returns. Your employees may be able to make a claim to the National Insurance Fund for outstanding wages and holiday pay, payment in lieu of notice, and redundancy. Employees can claim in the bankruptcy for any money owed that is not paid by the National Insurance Fund.
For further details, you should contact the Redundancy Payments Service on 0845 145 0004.
There is nothing to prevent a bankrupt from being self-employed. So you can start to trade again, subject to restrictions. You will be responsible for keeping accounting records for this business and for dealing with the tax and VAT requirements for the new business. You will need to register again for VAT if you meet the registration requirements. You should not continue to use your pre-bankruptcy VAT registration number.
Your Wages In Bankruptcy
Your trustee may apply to court for an Income Payments Order (IPO), which requires you to make contributions towards the bankruptcy debts from your income. The court will not make an IPO if it would leave you without enough income to meet the reasonable domestic needs of you and your family. If you have an increase or decrease in income, the IPO can be changed.
IPO payments continue for a maximum of 3 years from the date the order is made by the court and may continue after you have been discharged from your bankruptcy. Or you may enter into a written agreement with your trustee, called an Income Payments Agreement (IPA), to pay a certain amount of your income to the trustee for an agreed period, which cannot be longer than 3 years. There are no fixed guidelines on IPOs or IPAs - each case is assessed individually.
Bankruptcy Restrictions Orders And Undertaking
If, during their enquiries into your affairs, the Official Receiver decides that you have been dishonest either before or during the bankruptcy or that you are otherwise to blame for your position, s/he may apply to the court for a bankruptcy restrictions order. The court may make an order against you for between 2 and 15 years and this order will mean that you continue to be subject to the restrictions of bankruptcy. You may give a bankruptcy restrictions undertaking which will have the same effect as an order, but will mean that the matter does not go to court.
Debts You Have Incurred After You Have Been Made Bankrupt
Bankruptcy deals with your debts at the date of the bankruptcy order. After that date you should manage your finances more carefully. If you incur new debts this could result in:
A further bankruptcy order;
Prosecution if, when you incurred the debts, you did not disclose that you were bankrupt.
