Issues with Employer (PAYE: Income Tax, NI not Paid. Not paid at all for 6 months)

[person12]

I'm looking for advice on the current situation outlined below.

-Worked for a company for around 4 years with a 35k Salary, on full-time contract.
-Recently checked my NI records and see my NI contributions have not been paid at all for around 2 years.
-Found out that although they paid me what I should have received, they never paid the income tax, NI, student loan contributions, for nearly 2 years. And I was removed from their PAYE (after around 2 years of them paying this normally).
-The company only has 2 full time employees, and I've found they never registered the other employee (started 1 year ago).
-Around 1 year ago the only company director and main shareholder and CEO said they would give me a share of the company if I worked as a director, changed to a directors salary, and worked for free for 6 months. I agreed only verbally at the time, on the assurance that this would mean the company would employ an additional worker (while not paying my salary) and potentially the value would rise.
-The company stopped paying me for the last 6 months, without making me a director or providing any shares (they have been 'working' on this for 1 year, including 6 months with 0 payments, while I keep the company afloat working 10-12 hour average days 5-6 days a week.
-During those 6 months the company didn't pay another worker at all, and a significant amount of the money they saved I have found out has been transferred to the only directors account.
-This month, the company received a fairly large payment, and the only director immediately transferred half of it to their personal account and they are now on holiday and not responding, desplte the fact I've not been paid for 6 months and they've not fulfilled anything which was promised.

At this point I can no longer believe anything they say and I beleive I need to officially hand in my notice and then go through a tribunal, officially my contract has never been ended, and as far as I'm aware legally they cannot have me working full-time for 6 months without any payment if I wasn't a registered director.

I'll also need to contact HMRC about the fact they havn't fulfilled any of their PAYE obligations. They also knowingy paid me nothing for 6 months as a full time employee with a contract, which seems illegal.

Any advice on simply where to start or the steps to take and anything to be aware of would be greatly appreciated.

[atticus]

First of all, you can sue the company for your unpaid wages. But is the company able to pay? Can I ask why exactly you have allowed this to go on so long?

Second, tell HMRC.

[person12]

Thank you very much for the advice.

The company itself may not be able to pay due to the director taking most of it's revenue out when it comes in. Would the director be personally liable, or would they be able to liquidate the company to avoid paying the wages - would that result in me ultimately being responsible for the other 18months of unpaid taxes?

It's taken so long due to misplaced trust - they have constantly lied saying things will be sorted, this month, this week, in a few days - and then never actually do anything about it.

Do I need to collect/save evidence to prove I was working for the company during this time (before resigning) or is the contract enough?