The Government has made its ninth amendment to insolvency fees under the Insolvency Proceedings (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2015 (SI 2015/1819). The costs of presenting a bankruptcy or winding-up petition will increase for petitions presented on or after 16 November 2015 as follows
Petition | Creditors’ bankruptcy petition | Compulsory winding up |
Current deposit | £750 | £1,250 |
Deposit from 16 November 2015 | £825 | £1,350 |
Current remaining OR fees | £1,100 | £1,150 |
Remaining OR fees from 16 November 2015 | £1,165 | £1,170 |
The costs for a debtor’s own bankruptcy petition have not changed.
There is also an increase to the Secretary of State administration fee levied on the realisations paid into the insolvency services account. The calculation of this levy has been adjusted, apart from the overall cap of £80,000 which remains the same.
Amount of asset realisations | Current levy | Levy from 16 November 2015 |
First £2,000 (£2,500 for liquidations) | 0% | No change |
Next £1,700 | 100% | 75% |
Next £1,500 | 75% | 50% |
Next £396,000 | 15% | No change |
Remainder up to a maximum levy of £80,000 | 1% | No change |
According to the Government, the main objective is to increase fees in order to eliminate deficits and cover costs. The intended effect is a shift from taxpayers subsidising the operational deficit to increasing income which will aid full cost (but no more) recovery.
The other objective is to reduce the reliance on cross subsidisation of cases and arrange for income from individual cases to more closely match costs. Here the intended effect is to create a fairer and more transparent funding structure for Official Receiver cases.
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