DH owes money to the taxman but can't pay

The debt collectors usually require half the debt upfront and then a payment plan. If the debt cannot be paid they will remove assets

This is rubbish! I worked for a debt collection agency in the 1990s and they have very limited powers. They will send out letters designed to scare you. They are infamous for this.

Debt collectors as such cannot take your goods. They can take you to court and the court can then appoint bailiffs who MAY be able to take goods in certain circumstances. Bailiffs are not allowed to break into a domestic premises. However if your OH was self employed and WAH that might affect their powers.

I would strongly advise getting in touch with Stepchange. They are non judgemental and will spell out all the options with the pros and cons. They will, as stated upthread, negotiate with your debtors to arrange a plan by dividing up your "excess" income between them.

The advice to keep your income and property separate from that of your partner is very wise.

Cabbie21

Those debt agencies which are charities may not be able to take on cases of business debt, though obviously business and personal are related when you are self-employed.

It seems to me that a loan on one of the properties will be the answer, but he needs to get proper advice, not just try to deal with HMRC himself.

Reasonable approach.

Also do make sure who is owner to homes.

Those debt agencies which are charities may not be able to take on cases of business debt, though obviously business and personal are related when you are self-employed.

It seems to me that a loan on one of the properties will be the answer, but he needs to get proper advice, not just try to deal with HMRC himself.

M0nica

Katie59 The house belongs to his wife.

The thread does not exactly say that, nor who owns the house they live in. Certainly husband needs to sort his spending out but £10k is not critical if they have 2 houses, there is security for a loan that size.

Katie59 The house belongs to his wife.

He can afford to pay because he has a house to sell, make sure you keep your own money separate from his because he will have to pay the debt collectors plus interest plus costs.

He needs to avoid selling the house if he can because as it# not his main residence it’s liable to Capital Gains Tax which will reduce its value a lot.

Over the years I have had to keep our finances separate as he is so financially irresponsible. My wage/the rent money pays the bills.

Well done you.

Is the rental in your name and/ or your home?

Find your ducks - get them in a row. No selling yet.

I'd call a solicitor - you let this go on some time - quit!

I'm afraid, I agree too. Unless you think he can change. this is likely to happen over and over again. He's constantly making YOU worry about finances and making YOU sort them out.

You've been brilliant about protecting your personal assets to date however, well done you.

You describe him as an ostrich, it sounds like more going on here, that he can be so irresponsible and land you in the *hit trying to sort it out. If you want to stay together is he able do you think to confront his ways in front of a joint counsellor, or does he think his way of going on is actually just fine and why bother when wife can sort it out for him?

Me 3

I have just reread the OP.

The result is that I am entirely in agreement with AmberSpyglass

mumofmadboys

You could ask for advice from Stepchange or CAP ( Christians against poverty). Both offer free advice re debts and can negotiate payment plans. Hope you can sort it together.

i don't think those services are aimed at people who are landlords.
you are not in poverty or struggling financially if you have an extra house which you could sell to pay your debts.

Frankly, leave him.

Golly PinkCosmos you deserve a medal for maintaining a marriage with this man. The situation you describe would give me hives and I fear that your life with him is not likely to become easier anytime soon.I wish you good luck: your husband not so much.

You can pay it in instalments but he will have to contact them. Burying his head is not an option.

If you are hopeless with money don't be self employed!
Think you need to work with him to tackle this. Or else distance yourself.
But having someone on his side to help sort it might pull him through.
Depends on your relationship.

Does he employ an accountant?
If so he/she should be your first port of call.
The longer he buries his head in the sand the bigger the debt will be.
I suggest you separate what assets you can from your husband, putting your rental property in your name could be a start.

Good luck.

Are there other problems here?
Alcoholism depression, gambling addiction?

Has he always behaved like this or could there been underlying health issue? Maybe a trip to the GP is needed.

PinkCosmos he probably has a bill that will be due by the end of July as well. Is he being honest with you about his liabilities?

I regret this person is a classic example of what happens when you bury your head in the sand.

Setting aside, that as a self-employed person, presumably over many years, he should have been setting money aside every month to pay tax, his refusal to contact the tax authorities, as soon as he realised he had a problem paying, is going to make matters much worse.

If the HMRC are now contacting debt collectors this suggests that the tax authorities have made more than one attempt to contact him and he has persistently ignored them. He is in deep difficulty, because they will be very unwilling to settle for any 'nominal' payments.

One possibility is for you, is not to sell your rental property, but for you to take out a secured loan, the security being the house itself and repaying the money from the rent you receive.

Either way, you need to talk to one of the FREEdebt help agencies. The two main ones are:
Step Change www.stepchange.org/
National Debtline www.nationaldebtline.org/

Did he provide HMRC with the information they requested PinkCosmos?

The mistake he's made on top of not having made provision to begin with, is not dealing with this at the time. A payment plan could have been arranged with HMRC if he'd acted responsibly when he knew there was a problem.

I agree with Hithere you need to see if and how this could affect you.

The issue here is not how he can pay, it is the reason why he is on this position initially

I would go to a lawyer and see how his financial irresponsibility affects you

It is not the fact that he is careless about money, he is also not taking any steps towards addressing this.

He has spoken to HMRC. They wanted a list of our outgoings. The tax bill is just on my DH's business earnings. The only bills he pays out of that are his phone and insurances. He just burns through the rest of his money.

Theexwife - I didn't realise that they would accept half of the money and then instalments. Not that he has half of the money. I have told him to sell some of his stuff and use that to pay part of the bill off. I have been telling him to contact HMRC since January when he said he couldn't pay the bill. He is an ostrich

You could ask for advice from Stepchange or CAP ( Christians against poverty). Both offer free advice re debts and can negotiate payment plans. Hope you can sort it together.

My only info is from watching debt-collecting programmes on TV.

The debt collectors usually require half the debt upfront and then a payment plan. If the debt cannot be paid they will remove assets.

It doesn’t help you now but payment plans can be set up easily if the problem is dealt with straight away, if he contacts the agency now, before they turn up at your house maybe something could be arranged.