The High Court (Court) has found that it was not appropriate to make a winding up order in respect of a company under section 760(2) of the Companies Act 2014 (Act), where no party was nominated or consented to act as liquidator.

The Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill proposes to introduce measures designed to help those in financial difficulty and suffering with mental health problems to get some much needed "breathing space".

A recent Court of Appeal decision held that receivers are statutorily obliged to discharge preferential costs from assets available after deducting costs and expenses of a receiverirst line

The issue

We explore the utility of restructuring plans for small to mid-sized companies in 2023 as Government pandemic support tails away whilst inflation and energy prices continue to soar.

With HMRC more focused than ever before on recovering taxes due, we look at the most common ways in which HMRC can transfer the liability of taxes due and/or penalties to Company Officers and making them personally liable.

The Government has promised to spend an additional £79 million over the next five years to help HMRC tackle tax fraud and address compliance risks amongst wealthy taxpayers. HMRC's efforts will be a threat to businesses affected in terms of costs and expenditure in time in dealing with HRMC.

The Irish High Court (Court) has pierced the corporate veil in Powers -v- Greymountain Management Ltd [In Liquidation] & Ors [2022] IEHC 599, to hold passive resident directors and non-resident shadow directors personally liable for funds lost to investors as a result of fraud.

The Facts

The High Court (Court) has appointed an inspector to investigate the affairs of a company following the first recorded application by a creditor, under Section 747 of the Companies Act 2014 (Act).

The Facts

The applicant, a creditor of WFS Forestry Ireland Limited (Company), and at least seventeen others, claimed that investments they made in the Company, in the form of loans and other advances, were not repaid when due.

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court finding, which granted a declaration under section 819 of the Companies Act 2014 (CA 2014), restricting the appellant director (Appellant) from acting as a director or secretary of a company for a period of five years, unless the company meets the requirements set out in subsection (3) of section 819.

Under Irish and UK law, company directors owe fiduciary duties to act in good faith in the interests of the company. The company's interests in this context usually means the collective best interests of the members. However, UK and Irish authorities have developed directors' common law duties, such that in cases of insolvency, directors have a duty to consider the interests of the company's creditors.

In a William Fry article published earlier this year, we discussed the Irish government's approval to opt-in to a regulation amending Annexes A and B to the European Insolvency Regulation 2015/848 (EIR Recast) regarding the recognition of insolvency processes recently introduced in other EU Member States.