Many businesses fail and consequently have to face financial crises that few recover from and in most instances, results in business owners shutting doors for good. If your business has no assets or liabilities, the more simpler process of deregistration takes place. The liquidation process needs to be followed if your business has assets, liabilities or both.
The Liquidation of Your Business
Liquidation is the process by which your company or close corporation effectively declares itself insolvent. Your business can undergo voluntary liquidation, where you choose to voluntarily liquidate it, or when you undergo compulsory liquidation through action by your creditors.
Once your business has been placed under liquidation, it will stop all its business activities in so far as may be required for the “winding-up”, i.e. the process of selling all the assets of your business, paying off your creditors, distributing any remaining assets to the partners or shareholders and then dissolving your business. A liquidator will be appointed to perform all these tasks.
The Consequences of Liquidation
When your business gets liquidated, all contracts concluded with the business remain in effect. The liquidator has to make the decision whether or not he/she intends to abide by the contract or to terminate it, which will depend on what would be the most beneficial decision to the creditors. However, if the liquidator chooses to terminate the contract, the other contracting parties have a monetary claim against the insolvent estate as a concurrent creditor, i.e. creditors who do not hold any security.
If you are a director and/or shareholder of your business, then you should be especially cautious when your business gets liquidated, because you will still be liable for debt for which you have signed surety, i.e. taking responsibility for another’s performance of an undertaking. If a director acted negligent or fraudulent in his/her capacity as the director, he/she can also be rendered personally liable.
The liquidation of your business does not terminate employment contracts; it is up to the liquidator to decide whether to do so or not, and this decision must be in line with the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995, Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, and the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936. However, employment contracts are suspended upon liquidation of the employer; during this suspension period, the employee is not obliged to render any services to the employer, and he/she is not entitled to receive any payment or employment benefits that arise from the contract. An employee whose services have been terminated because of liquidation, is entitled to claim losses suffered from the employer’s liquidated estate.
Dealing with Your Taxes
SARS has a preferent claim in the business’s insolvent estate, meaning that SARS gets paid before the business’s concurrent creditors. If the business gets liquidated voluntary and there is still debt owed to SARS after the winding-up of the business, the shareholders may, in terms of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011, be held personally liable in certain circumstances. The Value Added Tax Act 89 of 1991 places you as a member or a director of the business, who has regularly partaken in the management of the company, in the position of a trustee of the government’s money and you will be held liable for the business’s VAT.
Other taxes are deemed to be civil debt, and money owed to SARS simply gets written off if SARS does not get a dividend from your business’s insolvent estate, or if your business is deregistered. However, SARS may issue criminal summons against business owners in this regard.
This article is a general information sheet and should not be used or relied on as legal or other professional advice. No liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions nor for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information herein. Always contact your legal adviser for specific and detailed advice. Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE).
References:
Smesouthafrica.co.za. (2017). When you have to liquidate your biz – 5 considerations you shouldn’t overlook. [online] Available at: http://www.smesouthafrica.co.za/16586/When-you-have-to-liquidate-your-biz-5-considerations-you-shouldnt-overlook/ [Accessed 23 Jun. 2017].
Investopedia Staff. (2017). Winding Up. [online] Investopedia. Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/windingup.asp [Accessed 23 Jun. 2017].