Does closing our business can make any sense?

Hi Atty. Our School business need some legal advice from you.The school are now suffering from a big debt to SSS and other loan company.Way back 2004, madami pa po kaming naging students from pre-school and elementary..pero habang tumatagal ang panahon some of them transferred to public school na naging cost ng pagkalugi ng school.

We tried to look for an investor and other loan company for the school to survive..pero di po nakaya ng school.We are planning to close nalang our school this coming March 2012 after the graduation day of our current student. We just want to know if our school is already close does it make any sense for us not to have an obligation to pay those people and government agencies.. di na po kasi talaga namin kakayanin pa bayaran ang lahat.


We hope to hear from you soon atty. we reanlly need an advice.

thanks,
grace

are the loans in the name of the school or personal (or both)? is the school incorporated?

as for sss, if you deducted from the employees, you can be liable for estafa if you do not remit, and sss law also has stiff penal provisions.

thanks for the response atty. our loans are not in the name of our school.It is under the name of my sister as one of the school administrator.

regarding sss.. we did not deduct any sss premium to our teachers salaries and our teachers agreed that they will not have sss premium so that they can have their salaries complete with no deduction of any premium benefit. but the sss ignore it and told us that even contractual employees should have sss benefits.our school started year 2004 until now and we are planning to close it this end of school year on March 2012.

yes atty. our school is incorporated.

I attended the hearing this Nov. 21 at Quezon City trial court.And the sss lawyer wants me to settle our account thru issuing a postdated check and we should give 5% of the amount due to us which is 40,000 this coming december so that our case will be close.but we still dont have enough money for that. and in case we can do something about the 5%. what we are worrying is that the school cannot pay the monthly dues that SSS is requiring us to pay amounting to 18,000 monthly.

Do you think it would be better if we will close the school?

i am handling a similar case. even if you close the school, you will still have to pay the SSS. penalty is very stiff, 6 years imprisonment and there is no probation.

the sister is liable for those loans

thanks for your immediate response atty.. it really help. another question is that.. we can start paying SSS by the month of June 2012.it will take more than 6 months. What should we do for our case not to put in a higher court? For now I am attending hearing at Quezon City hall talking to a prosecutor and SSS lawyer.My next hearing is on January 11, 2012.Do we also need to have a lawyer to help us delay the case until we have enough fund to pay them until June 2012?

Thank you very much attorney.. your a big help for us who do not know the rules of law..

keep negotiating. the sss doesn't want to continue with the case as long as you agree to pay for it within 2 years.