Exowner,
DB is correct.
As directors of the company you have a fiduciary duty to wind up the company by virtue of the fact that the companies liabilities are in excess of its assets, and it cannot pay its debts as they fall due.
You should cease paying any of your creditors at this stage and make arrangements to have the company put into liquidation. The liquidation will cost approx €10K - €20K depending on the level of work required by the liquidator, but the alternative is that you will have to discharge all the creditors, namely revenue of € 50K, and still place the company into liquidation, or voluntarily strike off the company. At that stage notwithstanding the fact that it will be a smaller exercise, there will still be an associated cost on each.
It’s a fact of life that businesses fail, and it is simply more prevalent in times of recession. You are in the majority of people who simply operate the company as a sole trade operation, where the liabilities of the company are perceived to be personal liabilities. The liabilities of the Company are simply that, liabilities of the company, and not personal liabilities.
Provided there is no issue of reckless or fraudulent trading it would appear that the demise of the business was resultant from the circumstances of the time, and if this is the case, you are already down your investment without sinking further monies into a hole.
On the issue of the eligibility to be a liquidator, a liquidator must be an independent person, and have no connection with the company or any of its officers. Generally a liquidator would be an accountant, but there is no legal requirement for this.
Regards,
STCO