"Directors cannot pick and choose what taxes they want to pay"
Pub landlord Kirpal Rathaur, aged 51, from Nottingham, has been banned for 11 years after he submitted inaccurate tax returns worth nearly £7 million.
He operated a number of well-known venues in the city centre.
Rathaur was appointed director at the same time as Edward & Moore Ltd was incorporated in September 2009. Several of his businesses had traded under the company’s name.
He was the landlord of bars including Blue Bell Inn, Cucamara, and Fat Cat which are based in the city centre.
The company entered into voluntary liquidation in November 2018, owing close to £6.9 million to creditors.
The liquidation led to an investigation by the government’s Insolvency Service.
They discovered that for over four years between February 2010 and November 2014, Rathaur caused Edward & Moore to submit inaccurate returns to the tax authorities.
This generated an outstanding shortfall of close to £7 million.
It was also discovered that in March 2015, Rathaur falsely took Edward & Moore off the business tax list.
Edward & Moore continued to trade until liquidation. As they had not been paying business tax for several years, the company built up liabilities of £7.9 million.
A spokesperson for the Insolvency Service explained that Rathaur failed to preserve or maintain acceptable accounting records for the company.
This meant it was impossible to determine what happened to the £7.9 million in unpaid taxes and how much in total was owed to the company’s creditors, including the tax authorities.
It was also impossible to establish how much money Rathaur withdrew from the company.
Rathaur requested a “disqualification undertaking” on April 29, 2019. The secretary of state accepted his request.
The ban was effective from May 20, 2019, and it is to last 11 years.
This means he cannot directly or indirectly become involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without the permission of the court.
Martin Gitner is the deputy head of investigations of the Insolvency Service. He said:
“Directors cannot pick and choose what taxes they want to pay but this did not deter Kirpal Rathaur from avoiding paying business duty that he rightfully owed.
“An 11-year disqualification is a substantial ban, seriously curtailing Kirpal Rathaur ability to run companies.”
“And demonstrates our commitment to investigate and ban those directors who abuse the tax systems and their responsibilities.”
The Nottingham Post reported the full list of businesses operated by the pub landlord during the investigation:
- Blue Bell Inn
- Cucamara
- The Bear & Lace
- Bag O Nails
- Fat Cat – Friargate Derby
- Fat Cat – Mansfield Road Nottingham
- Fat Cat – Chapel Bar Nottingham
- Up N Down Under
- Currylounge
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