Tax bill

Quote: Adeybull "Did I tell you? I may be an accountant by profession, but I work in business, in the real world. Little of my role involves (financial) accounting, whereas a large part of it indeed involves actual people, things and money. Has done for many years. If I did not feel I was reasonably well qualified to comment, I would not have.

And for that reason, I very much agree with most of what you said in your post, once we got that dig out of the way.

But what happens in RL etc clubs, with the scale of unpaid PAYE and VAT and HMRC usually being the largest third-party creditor is in fact very unusual compared to most businesses. This very much reflects the fact that the biggest cost by far of a RL club is people, and large supplier and bank creditors are generally thin on the ground because banks won't lend to most RL clubs and big suppliers are wary. So instead of the bank and the suppliers being used to take the strain, and the ensuing pain, clubs resort to HMRC. Who are totally sick and tired of it - you guys have already done it once, don't forget, and HMRC finding their £1/2m was the only significant unpaid third party creditor when London Broncos went under totally incensed them. As will the total and utter scandal that is Crusaders which I feel sure has helped your situation not one bit.

The point I am trying to get across is sort of alluded to in your last paragraph. When you are running a RL (etc) club, and you get seriously behind with paying the PAYE and VAT - and I'm not meaning just a month or so

Hmm - you snipped the bit where I said 'without disrespect to the individuals involved' to create a dig where none was intended.

Reading your post, we seem to be at risk of furiously agreeing with each other on most points, other than your apparent outrage at WTW's seemingly laissez faire attitude to their obligations to HMRC.

Yes, in theory, the Directors of all businesses *should* behave responsibly and with absolute integrity at all times; they don't though and they never will, and to think otherwise is rather naive. You're dead right on your final point though - the more complex and unethical the behaviour is and the longer it goes on, the harder it is to justify as anything other than a deliberate attempt to deceive.