Struck down

I act for a limited company which has been going through a difficult trading period and things have fallen into arrears both from an administrative and tax payment point of view. The company was late sending in its annual return to Companies House and as a consequence I have now been notified that it has been struck off.

In the normal course of events this would be somewhat disastrous but in this case I am wondering if there is not in fact an advantage to be gained here. As the company no longer exists it seems to me that I could simply start a new company for the client even using the same name perhaps.

The old company had no significant assets and in fact owed tax to HMRC – who I would normally have thought would have...