Our honorable councillors should take look at this and take good note of what Barry Hearn did or even didn,t do!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39151664

Football clubs and property developers together is never a good idea for the football club.

Another non-tax-paying situation. I don't understand. If football clubs at our level never make a profit, how come their owners are liable for tax at all?

VAT probably.

How does that work then? Is it that they charge fans vat for tickets, catering etc and then should be paying it to Inland Revenue?

Yes, when you bill somebody or sell them something you charge VAT, 20% over here, and then it is your job to put it to one side and pass it on. You can deduct VAT that you've paid when buying materials and so on so lots of businesses wait to pay it so they can knock that bit off first. Problem is that you can end up with a healthy looking bank balance that is tempting to dip into when really you owe the money to the taxman and haven't got a healthy bank balance at all.

Basically, you collect the tax on behalf of the government whether you like it or not. You have to pay it whether you make a profit or not because the money was never yours and you knew that all along.

Ah, right. Makes sense now.

I've never run my own comapny so I'm saying this with no experience of the reality but wouldn't a company just separate it from their actual profit/income/whatever, stick it in a separate account and then pay it when it's due?

Being tempted to use it is a really piss poor excuse

Yes. So piss poor that it's illegal

Ours gets done monthly now which is ideal - just goes in and back out and you never think it is yours. I suppose the temptation creeps in when people see it as a cheap short term loan. Business is struggling for cash and has bills so they dip into the VAT to pay the bills but feel sure that they'll have the money to pay the VAT once its due, or soon after. In itself that isn't illegal but if the money they're expecting fails to turn up and they can't pay the VAT pretty quickly after the deadline winding up processes soon start.

FTR from distant memory there are/was/still 5 different VAT rates, and VAT returns could be paid monthly, quarterly or Annually (subject to status).

Cash traders have no excuse for not paying as they have had the cash, where'as invoice traders may have an overlap depending on invoice payment terms (30 days etc)