levo

The Role of Credit in the Economy

Limited and unlimited liability

  • 3 things to know
  • Papers 1 and 3

Overview

Unlimited and limited liability, which business forms carry each, the separate legal entity, what creditors and shareholders can lose, how limited liability encourages investment, personal guarantees, private against public limited companies, the costs of limited liability, trade credit, partly paid shares, firm size and insolvency.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Define unlimited liability.

Key term

Define limited liability.

Key term

Which two forms of business organisation carry unlimited liability?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Define unlimited liability.

    Model answer

    Unlimited liability means the owner is personally responsible for all the business's debts, so personal assets can be taken to settle them.

  2. 2

    Define limited liability.

    Model answer

    Limited liability means an investor's loss is capped at the amount they have put into the company, and personal assets cannot be claimed for the company's debts.

  3. 3

    Which two forms of business organisation carry unlimited liability?

    Model answer

    The sole trader and the ordinary partnership both carry unlimited liability.

  4. 4

    Why does limited liability require the business to be a separate legal entity?

    Model answer

    Only if the company is a legal person in its own right can it own assets, owe debts and be sued separately from the people who own its shares.

  5. 5

    A sole trader's business fails owing £60,000. Explain what the creditors may claim.

    Model answer

    They may claim the full £60,000 from the owner personally, including from savings, a vehicle or a house, because liability is unlimited.

  6. 6

    A shareholder pays £5,000 for shares in a company that later fails owing £2 million. State the maximum the shareholder can lose.

    Model answer

    The shareholder can lose at most the £5,000 already invested.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Scarcity, Choice and Potential Conflicts
Enterprise, Business and the Economy
Introducing the Market
The Role of Credit in the Economy

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Brazil, , India and China.
RussiaMexicoIndonesia

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

ABorrowing becomes dearer and saving more rewarding.
BMortgage holders have less disposable income left.
CSpending on credit-financed items falls.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Wage rate means the amount an employer pays for one hour of work.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in The Role of Credit in the Economy, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.