A UK wine merchant has entered liquidation after it got into trouble with HMRC. A tribunal found that the business was selling bottles ‘off the book’. A higher penalty from the tax authority was upheld in a UK court after it was found that the company was deliberately understating sales. New Claire Wine’s directors challenged a January 2024 First-Tier Tribunal decision. However, it was found that the company had understated its sales in corporation tax and value-added tax returns.
HMRC had made a combined tax claim of £427,310, and it was identified that there were severe discrepancies in the company’s stock, with over 9,700 cases of wine bought off the books. There were also reportedly missing purchase invoices and unrecorded sales. The company then faced assessments for VAT, Corporation Tax, and director’s loan account (Section 455) liabilities, and it was also fined for deliberate tax return errors.
The company will now be wound up voluntarily after entering liquidation. A notice published in the London Gazette today reads: “Notice is given that at a virtual meeting of the Company, duly convened and held at the time and on the date given above, a special resolution was passed that the Company be wound up voluntarily; and an ordinary resolution was passed appointing the Liquidator for the purposes of the winding-up.”
New Claire Wine Ltd has a registered address on Westfield Street, Woolwich, London.
Giles McCarthy of Netchwood Finance Ltd has been appointed as the company’s liquidator. According to the Gazette, liquidators were appointed on May 19, 2026.
The notice revealed that the company entered Creditor’s Voluntary Liquidation, which is when liquidation is instigated by the directors and shareholders of an insolvent company to voluntarily wind up its affairs, sell off its assets and pay back creditors.
The liquidator has been contacted by the Daily Express for comment.
Company insolvencies are increasing in the UK. Recently, another alcohol company, MWH Wine Merchants Limited, entered liquidation. Thomas Edward Guthrie and John William Rimmer of BRI Business Recovery were appointed to see through the winding up of operations on May 13.
Many companies have cited things like increased costs and difficult trading conditions for entering liquidation and shutting down.
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