When trading continues after bankruptcy, the bankrupt remains responsible for filing returns and paying tax covering post-bankruptcy periods. The trustee must tell the Enforcement and Insolvency Service if the bankrupt continues to trade beyond the date of bankruptcy. Read section 1.4 of the Insolvency practitioner’s handbook for more information.

We will establish the pre-bankruptcy tax position to allow us to either:

• make a repayment to the office holder

You can find out more about Crown set-off in section 13 of the Insolvency practitioner’s handbook.

If you have tax to account for in respect of your period of office, you must not include this tax on the business’ post-bankruptcy returns.

VAT must be accounted for by completing the online form.

The online form predominantly applies to deregistered business claims and payments of VAT.

9.2.1 How to complete the online form to account for tax

To complete the online form you must complete the ‘Insolvent business details’ section as follows:

1. Select ‘Yes’ to indicate the business has cancelled its VAT registration.
2. Select ‘No’ to indicate you do not know when the VAT registration was cancelled.

Screenshot this guidance within section 9.2.1 and include with uploads to the ‘Upload invoices’ section of the form. Reference the reason for the claim or payment as ‘bankrupt continuing to trade’.