Brilliant post, but gave me the shivers that he had to write some of that. If the desire (or concern) to write this is legitimate—and I can't find much of a reason it wouldn't be—then there are some scary folks running companies out there.
This is not just as a short-term cash flow loan, which would be at least somewhat justifiable ("we're in the middle of a raise, it's cheaper to get an implicit loan from HMRC by paying the payroll taxes late than to negotiate a loan with a loan provider" is at least something I can imagine myself thinking under a lot of pressure). Over the years I've met a good number of companies who seem to think it's ok to do this consistently, year after year after year.
Unsurprisingly, a consistent neglect of paying your taxes is very much inversely correlated with the success of the business. I guess they also neglect many of the other things that Jacques mention.
Better to drag out terms with a supplier than the tax man. Suppliers have to go to court, get a judgement, hire a sherrif - the tax man just decides on his own to take the bank account (don't make him angry, you wouldn't like him if he was angry)
Source: I know 3 business people (in last 25 years) that shorted tax man, got caught, bank seizures and then almost immediately go out of business. Scary how quick it happens too.
We hosted all their online content which gave us leverage to be paid. We continued doing work for them but required up front cash payment before anything would be done.
I also put some ideas down in a Medium article last week. https://medium.com/@lanec/what-to-expect-as-a-new-ceo-9489df...
There are a lot of things to learn when you are becoming a CEO.