If you have personal unsecured debt that you are considering using an IVA for, you should bear in mind that any assets that you have may be incorporated into the IVA.

The Attitude of HMRC to Proposals for Individual Voluntary Arrangements

When a self employed trader becomes insolvent and seeks to offer proposals to creditors for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is highly likely to be one of those creditors. The self employed insolvent trader is likely to have liabilities for tax, national insurance, VAT or overpayment of tax credits. The approach that HMRC takes may be critical to the approval or rejection of such an IVA proposal, particularly when the HMRC debt exceeds the 25% threshold of the total debt owed to the creditors who are likely to vote. It behoves the insolvent trader therefore to consider carefully those factors which HMRC deem to be important in reaching their decision as to whether to vote for or against the trader’s proposal or even to abstain from voting entirely.

The Five Phases of an IVA

Shakespeare wrote about the Seven Ages of Man describing the various succeeding phases of the life of a person of normal lifespan from their birth to their passing. It occurred to me that an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) takes on a life of its own too, albeit its normal lifespan is but half a decade rather than four score years and ten or whatever a human being’s life expectancy is nowadays.

Insolvency Solutions for Debtors with Only Benefits Income

A debtor must be insolvent before he or she can offer an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to creditors. Furthermore the debtor must be able to make contributions to the IVA in part repayment of debts to creditors and be able to pay the administrative costs of the arrangement. Such contributions may consist of a lump sum, as for example the proceeds from the sale of a property or equity released via a re-mortgage or funds provided by a family member. More usually however, debtors make contributions into the IVA from their disposable income. An IVA may also consist of a combination of a lump sum payment with regular monthly contributions from income.

Co-habiting partners, whether married or not, share most aspects of their lives. Although each partner may earn their own income independently of their other half, many such couples share the burden of paying for their normal living expenses on a mutual basis.

What concerns most people who find themselves insolvent and who are forced to enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) or who on a voluntary or compulsory basis adopt the Bankruptcy (BCY) solution, is the long term damage to their credit worthiness.

If you have money worries and feel that you may be insolvent, you might like to learn about an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, commonly called an IVA, and how it might help you. Knowing what an IVA is and understanding the IVA process makes it easier when you have to decide whether to engage in this process or try some other possible solution for your financial distress.

Fourth Year Valuation & Beneficial Interest Explained Simply

It has long been standard practice for creditors to require of a debtor who owns property and who enters into an Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) with them that he or she should take steps to release some part or even all of the equity in that property and to contribute all or some of the proceeds into the IVA.

If you’re considering going for an IVA, you need to be sure that you understand its implications in both the short and long term. In the right circumstances, a successful IVA can not only handle your immediate debt problems, but can put you in a position to work towards real financial stability in the future.

When you have debts that you cannot meet the payments for, there are a number of options you can explore. Individual Voluntary Arrangements are a useful measure in helping people to get their finances under control, but there are situations in which an IVA is not possible or is not preferable for some reason.

The point of an IVA is to give people who cannot meet their debt payments a way to settle those debts within the framework of a legal contract. If you have personal unsecured debt that is no longer within your control, then an IVA may keep you from becoming bankrupt.

There are various legal processes that will necessarily be carried out if you attempt to use an Individual Voluntary Arrangement. Only certain professionals can carry these out within the law, as an IVA is a legal contract between you and your creditors. Insolvency Practitioners are the only professionals who are actually licensed to carry out the activities involved in both setting up and administering an IVA.

Pitfalls to avoid in an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)

For anybody who finds themselves to be insolvent and who then offers proposals to their creditors for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), it’s an occasion of great satisfaction and sometimes unbridled joy on the day of the Meeting of Creditors (MOC), when they learn that their IVA has been accepted by their creditors. They can now look forward to being debt free in a reasonable period of time. No more aggressive debt collectors, no more threatening or abusive phone calls from creditors, no more reminder bills, endless invoices or annoying statements of account and no more threats of legal action. Visits from bailiffs are a thing of the past.

Approving or rejecting an IVA can be a strange process

The insolvent debtor who offers a proposal for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to his or her (unsecured) creditors is really in the lap of the gods. This is because the creditors have all the power in the matter and can choose to accept the proposal as it stands, to reject it out of hand or to ask for changes to the proposal which usually have the effect of costing the debtor more than he or she intended to offer.

Most Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) last for sixty months and entail making monthly payments over that time. The IVA proposal contains the debtor’s initial offer of monthly repayments to creditors. These payments may be increased by creditors, with the debtor’s agreement before the IVA commences, that is at the Meeting of Creditors (MOC).

The title of this piece might suggest that if you know how to go about it, you might be able to retain the full amount of any redundancy lump sum you receive if you are unfortunate enough to lose your job while in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement.

Insolvent persons who are considering entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) with their creditors are often concerned as to whether the world generally and certain others in particular will find out about them and learn that they are in financial trouble.

A current account is like a best friend of long standing, someone you have known for a long time and whom you trust to help you. It is reliable and dependable. Sometimes you make demands on your current account that are bordering on unreasonable and you hope that it won’t let you down. Like a good friend it gives even when there is little or nothing left to give. Your financial secrets can be gleaned from perusal of your current account records but like your friend it keeps these secrets to itself and protects your confidentiality. If one’s current accounts could talk they would have many stories to tell. Your ups and downs for many years are chronicled therein and that is information that you would be reluctant to share even with a best friend.