Legal advice please!

This is fraud, get the police involved. You can recover the money (assuming she is found guilty) the court has the power to seize assets to reimburse you for your loss, and damages on top should that be applicable. Would be nice to hand her half of everything in the divorce settlement, then get it back through a court order or however its done shortly afterwards.

Big issue you have is the dividends have been drawn in your name, I find it difficult to believe you haven't noticed this on your tax return for 12 years, and it's a fair bet that's the defence your missus will use.
 
Just checked, nothing on the news. I must say I'm a little disappointed. I was expecting 'Mother, daughter and accountant found murdered, the police are scouring BlueMoon for clues'
 
richards30 said:
Right guys and gals,

I’m looking for urgent legal advice if anyone has had experience of my issue or can help? @Chris in London @gordondaviesmoustache as well please chaps.

I’ve just found out in the last few weeks that my wife has been taking money out of my family business account without our knowledge or permission. She does our bank transfers for our business to suppliers, VAT department etc but has been taking money out every week and booking it against my dividend but without me agreeing to it or even knowing about it? It was an of the cuff comment from our business accountant about the lifestyle and money the company gives me that would be hard to get if we sold the business, stating it gives me £10,000 a month money/wages? I was completely shocked by this and have looked into this now and it seems she has been doing it for over 12 years and the total is £1.3m!!!! I also sign an agreement with my mother who is the other shareholder that we don’t take a dividend when the yearly accounts are done yet it would appear that if it came to the crunch that I have been lying and taking it when I haven’t and had no idea about it happening. To make matters worse, to help the wife’s mum out I employed her to the accounts department and then have been pretty much kept out of seeing the accounts, bank account etc as I kept being told all was fine etc and to concentrate on what I do best which was the buying and selling. Since I found out, my attitude and feelings to my wife have been rather frosty to say the least as to be honest I was heartbroken that this had happened as I always planned to leave our children hopefully I’m a good position and a house for my Down syndrome daughter as I never want her in a home or center. Because I became distant, my mother in law has now resigned which has made my wife kick off at me and now is talking about divorce and my mother know wants to take legal advice about the money she has taken without permission. Anyone help? (Sorry for the long post as well ;-) )
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You don’t say what happened to the money.

Did it get recycled in some way into the family finances? If so, I’m not sure there’s a huge issue because if you entrusted the financial side to her, she may well have simply made use of the most tax efficient way of extracting money from the business. So if, one way or another, it all got spent on the holidays,the groceries, clothes, restaurants etc the fact she did it without your express consent may not be the biggest issue.

On the other hand, if she has been stashing money away in a hidden account, helping out a less well off relative, feeding a habit (which could be as innocuous as bingo) or something else that doesn’t benefit the whole family, that’s a different kettle of fish.

Once you know the answer to that you are lot further forward, because ultimately you have to decide whether you want your marriage to be over. If, actually, you’ve all had the benefit of the money, it may not be a red card offence. If she has been building up funds in an account she never told you about she may have been looking for an exit for some time.
 
richards30 said:
Yep! That’s is another problem mate, I sign a document alongside my mother saying we won’t take a dividend but now it seems I have been on the sly? All hell gonna break loose this week I think but on the Mrs rather than me as I have been running the business for 20 years and worked there 25 so she knows I don’t just take etc. I also keep her in the loop on anything I do with the form that’s out of the ordinary so she’s fully kept in the know and has always been happy.
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The thing is, whoever approved the accountant’s figures in the year-end accounts takes on the responsibility. If that is you, then you need professional legal advice.
 
What I am struggling with is in one post his Accountant gets him and his mother to sign a form to say that they don’t take dividends then his Accountant allocates him a dividend each year.
A dividend of around £120k each year will attract a personal tax bill of about £40k each year Due by 31st January.
Assuming the company was paying his personal tax bill because he didn’t have the cash to pay it personally,the dividend would need to increase by a further £40k the following year leading to additional personal tax of around £9k on that dividend.
So the following 31st of January the personal tax would be around £50k.
Now my experience through my own accountancy firm for around 35 years, if a client got a personal tax bill of more than £500 that they were not expecting, they would be on the blower asking what the fu*k is this.
 
Is this a troll post?

The first thing I do whenever facing legal issues is to seek out Bluemoon advice for guidance! LOL.
===
But in case the OP is serious, I recommend that he contact Saul Goodman immediately. Although Saul practices mainly (solely?) in the USA, I'm confident that he can offer sage advice for OP's current legal dilemma.
 
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