Adey is the man re tax etc but in general you have your QUARTERLY VAT bill and you have your PAYE and NI to pay, and so at any given time you are bound to "owe" the taxman a six figure sum but it isn't due or payable yet.
The sum currently being mentioned for HMRC is only 170K which a business our size could run up in VAT PAYE and NI in short order. It is feasible that there was no OUTSTANDING HMRC debt when Whitcut left and at the same time we did know what the build-up of shortly-to-be-payable debt was. Like a normal business, in fact.
It is also feasible - and indeed very likely - that HMRC would be watching Bradford Bulls like a hawk, and you could move from no actual payable debt to a winding up notice very quickly - if something became due but they couldn't pay it then HMRC may well have moved very quickly and probably did.
So in that respect what RW has said is perfectly believable.
So far as HMRC were concerned the customer was OKBL and it owed the money. Who was running it makes no odds at all.
When an "owner led" administration happens, it is often the case that in the build up, HMRC are not paid, as there is a big temptation to use that money for outgoings safe in the knowledge that HMRC can't do anything about it. I am not of course saying that that's what happened with us - but just that it is a pretty common situation.
