Small business debt to the ATO now accounts for around 65 per cent of the more than $52 billion owed to the government. That’s a lot of SMEs mainly in the hospitality, construction and retail industries who have not paid their tax.

While the headlines are running strong against the Tax Office for taking an aggressive stance against these businesses, it is worth considering that badly run enterprises are often put into liquidation not by the ATO but by unpaid creditors.

In my view, this is a…