The director of a Chinese takeaway has been disqualified for 10 years for causing the company to deliberately understate its profits, following an Insolvency Service investigation which found he owed some £500,000 in unpaid taxes
Yi Yang Chen, director of Golden Earl Ltd in Livingston, Scotland, was found to have concealed profits totalling £653,436 on which corporation tax of £135,528 was owed, by deliberately understating profits between February 2007 and May 2014.
In the absence of declaration, HMRC issued an assessment in the sum of £345,479. This was made up of £135,528 for concealed corporation tax, £16,994 for interest and a penalty charge of £192,957.
The investigation found that between May 2008 and May 2014, from the concealed profits, Chen received loans and advances from Golden Earl which were paid to his private bank accounts, totalling at least £615,133 giving rise to a tax liability of £155,788.
In the absence of Golden Earl making payment of £501,257, HMRC placed the company into liquidation in December 2015, at which point the deficiency to creditors was £618,890.
Robert Clarke, head of company investigation at the Insolvency Service said: ‘The public can be assured that where there have been abuses of public finance provisions which result in losses of this type, the Insolvency Service will investigate the conduct of the parties involved and take action to remove the privilege of limited liability trading for a lengthy period.’
Report by Pat Sweet
