Here we are at the start of a new tax year - 2008/2009, and it is hard to believe how quickly the years roll on. It doesn’t seem five minutes since we were planning for Y2K issues in the lead up to the Millenium, and now we are nearly at the end of another decade. For all those forum members who are self-employed it is now time to make sure that you start putting monies into a savings account to meet the next tax bill, and for those who are bankrupt on IPAs and IPOs based upon zero tax codes, this should now be amended via your new PAYE codings.

It is an exciting time in my Philip Gill & Co practice, as we launched our Scottish company Philip Gill & Co (Scotland) Limited on 1 April 2008. I have a new insolvency practitioner starting with me at the end of this month, who has experience of working in practice north of the border, and we already have a few Trust Deed clients and one Liquidation in the pipeline. I am rapidly learning the intricacies of Scottish legislation, and the workings of the various personal insolvency solutions and am sure that we will soon make a significant impact upon that marketplace.

Also an interesting couple of weeks with creditors meetings - I have challlenged a creditor who sought to claim a beneficial interest in a client’s partner’s property - when they had been in their relationship for just seven months, and a modification was put forward demanding a final year equity release from the property! And also we have regrettably had our first IVA rejected this year - where a lady was offering a full and final offer of settlement to creditors from raising her share of the equity in a jointly owned property, but this was turned down on the basis that creditors did not believe that her partner had not shared from the benefit of her borrowings. She is absoutely distraught, but I have referred her to Paul Johns of Reviva who is now helping her with an assisted bankruptcy. Completely unecessary and will result in a much reduced dividend payable to creditors.

I have also held some great meetings with new clients - including forum members Buttercup, Angela 18, Trees and Barbara, and have also talked to a lady who borrowed £25,000 from one of her creditors three years ago, was made to take out a £11,500 PPI policy on top of that, which over 10 years means that she would be paying back nearly £60,000. Having paid for three years she still owes £47,000! It soon became clear that this loan was negotiated over the phone, the PPI policy was not properly explained to her, and she has not signed any written agreement. This goes to demostrate how important it is to consider the implications of this type of lending, particularly in getting and understanding of just how much it is going to cost to repay the loan.

The IVA Council have reared their heads again and despite my getting their public apology and absolute assurance that they would not circulate any more of my clients, I find that three clients have received letters just this week. They are blaming it on their marketing company, but I am now starting to find the whole thing particularly irritating. Let’s hope they get on with this Court case they say they are mounting against the “IVA factories” as soon as possible, which is bound to fail in my opinion even if they can persuade a judge to hear it. Every single one of these people who claims to have had an IVA mis-sold to them has signed on the dotted line, and that is contractually binding - so difficult to see how IPs and their firms are going to be found guilty.

Last Saturday I travelled to Birmingham for the Midlands Frugal Friends meeting in what could only be described as the worst weather ever to hit this area. Windy, and sheeting rain all the way up the M5, and I go absolutely soaked walking from the carpark to the hotel. I must admit I thought that Andy was daft to hold a meeting on a Saturday evening, but the turnout was fantastic and the general consensus from all members was that this night is better than during the week. So more Saturday night venues seem to be the order of the day. I had arranged to provide some food - hot and cold buffet being the order - but what “Fawlty Towers” produced was absolutely astonishing! I have seen better food prepared in an Army field cookhouse in the middle of Salisbury Plain - and it was absolutely embarrassing. Fortunately most of our guests saw the funny side of things, and were absolutely troopers and we did have a giggle afterwards. When I told the Duty Managers I was not prepared to pay for it, he told me not to worry as this happened quite a lot and they were used to it! These events are really starting to gain momentum, and we look forward to attending the next one in Portsmouth in May.

Am going to sign off now as Cardiff City are just about to start their FA Cup Semi-Final against Barnsley. I am not really a football fan, but we feel that we have to give our team some support as they have really done so well this year. Good luck to the Bluebirds!

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