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The market is indeed difficult and cash flow is an issue for all of us.

We all have debts to service and we all accrue liabilities as we trade.

This was the situation as reported a couple of weeks ago :-

"In total, at that stage Just Costs Ltd owed £781,758 to HM Revenue & Customs, £29,836 to financial advisory firm Bennett Brooks and £17,429 to landlords I2 Office Limited. It is unknown at this stage what liabilities remain."

What I would like to know is :

Did HMRC ever receive the £781,758 that they were owed and if not, what dd they recover (if anything) ?

Did Bennett Brooks or the landlord recover anything ?

Excuse my lack of sympathy but we can all complain about the difficulties we face in any commercial environment but I was always taught not to accrue liabilities which I could not discharge.

The HMRC debt is the interesting one, How has this been allowed to accrue ? Unpaid taxes tend to indicate that the debtor (in this case Just Costs Ltd) has avoided a liability which the rest of us cannot / do not avoid. This makes for an uneven commercial playing field.

When we are offering rates / payment terms to our clients, we cannot be as competitive as those who are not paying their taxes.

For the record, I am not alleging criminality, wrongdoing or impropriety. I am merely asking how the HMRC debt accrued. If there is a perfectly reasonable explanation then my faith in a fair marketplace will be duly restored.