The Upper Tier Tribunal (UTT) sitting on HMRC v Murray International Holdings (MIH) has ordered HMRC’s demand for unpaid tax to be reduced substantially. Claims Sir David Murray Employee Benefit Trust should be taxed were dismissed, but the UTT was not prepared to endorse that guaranteed bonus payments paid to Rangers players should not be taxed.
During the First Tier Tribunal MIH acknowledged tax should have been paid on EBTs given to a further five players, who were removed from the judgement (although the tax was never paid). Lord Nimmo Smith’s SPL Inquiry found Rangers guilty of not disclosing side-letters given to players which contractually bound EBT payments and arrangements. The Inquiry issued Oldco Rangers with a fine of £250,000. Newco Rangers agreed to pay all of Oldco’s football debts as a price to gain entry to the SFA and league structure. It is anticipated this fine will be collected in the event the club reaches top flight football.
Rangers did not dispute they operated an illegal Discount Options Scheme, which was uncovered by Craig Whyte’s investigators, when he carried out due diligence before buying the club from Sir David Murray. Tax due on this scheme was never paid.
Once in control, Whyte continued to operate the club’s tax arrangements in similar ethical standards. He failed to pay VAT, PAYE or National Insurance. Several hundred other creditors were left in the lurch as the club was liquidated.
At its heart, this is a morality tale. The first lesson which should be drawn is that it is far better to disclose your tax arrangements to the authorities than to hide them. When Celtic employed Juninho, who had an earlier EBT, they disclosed this fact and subsequent transactions to HMRC (Celtic never issued rule-breaking side-letters either).
Perhaps the most important lesson is not to allow debt to get out of control. Armed with the Discount Options Scheme and tax not paid on contractually guaranteed bonuses, HMRC were legally bound to pursue the club for money the tax payer was due – and will almost certainly never be paid.
Once that train was in motion, the club was at the mercy of its bank. MIH held substantial commercial property assets at this time, when the UK commercial property market took an average 45% nosedive. Then the bank itself (HBOS) was sold, exposing legacy arrangements to full commercial scrutiny.
Even then, even then, Rangers could have used the bonus of Champions League income to either rapidly pay-down their bank debt, or retain as a hedge against the consequences of the on-going tax dispute. Instead Walter Smith returned to the transfer market, spending what he could to keep his nose in front of Celtic.
This was an arrogant and fatal mistake.
When Whyte put his £1 on the table there was nothing the Independent Board Committee could do to dissuade Sir David from selling, but by then all the cards had been played, an insolvency event was on the horizon unless someone coughed up £18m to repay the overdraft, and no one was prepared to do this.
In the unedifying final days the club was reduced to turning, cap in hand, to lifelong adversaries to ask for rule changes which never arrived.
Despite all of this, humility among this lot is scarcer than a fully paid up tax receipt.
It took dozens of people working to promote Rangers on-field activities to kill the club. Those who failed to disclose side-letters, those who allowed debt to get out of control, those who sat on boards which endorsed Smith’s spending knowing the potential consequences, those who campaigned against the people who disclosed Whyte’s background, were all necessary for this outcome. Their reputations are now co-dependent
Celtic fans, HMRC nor the SFA killed Rangers. None of them* knew about the Discount Options Scheme, the undisclosed side-letters, the unpaid VAT, PAYE or NI bills. None of them decided to spend more than was prudently possible.
Killing Rangers was an inside job. The biggest rivalry in football is gone; we won, by an avalanche of own goals.
*apart from SFA president Campbell Ogilvie, who knew exactly what was going on.
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Gary67 @ 18:17
How sad.
Has anyone else been offered a special prize from CQN today? Or is someone trying to break into my computer?
Thought for the weekend: will peace reign in the Vatican? Will Francis or Benedict be the happier on Sunday evening? Will the winning Pope have received special blessings from the Almighty? Only asking…
connaire12 –
I have been offered all manner of incentives to go away and never post again. Does that count?
great article by alex thomson
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/rangers-tax-no-surrender/8012
Tom,
I think someone else hut the nail square. Its not fear, more depression at the grinding inevitability of honest mistakes, dusted down songbooks and ‘old firm’ 8 page pullouts….
HH.
Billy bhoy 05
It’s a mindset. I’ve always known they’d be back.
I’ve loved the last few years and that knowledge hasn’t diminished it one bit. If anything I thought they’d have been back in the SPL a lot sooner
My father and those before him would simply have been incredulous at what has happened to them. I’m sure many of you and yours would have felt the same. So enjoy the moment for them , if not for yourself.
Life’s to short to worry about what’s coming. It’s taken me fifty years + to realise that but there you go…
As Paul said in his piece – We won.
It’s like 1967 and the big one.
It’s there , it’s in the books. It can’t be erased.
HH
Close your eyes and everything will be fine. We need more posts about golf and tennis.
For what it is worth —-
An Italian radio station has claimed that Cesare Prandelli( new Manager of Galatasaray ) hopes to sign Samaras .
A Sicilian radio station claims that Cesare Prandelli will sign Samaras only if Osvaldo says no to signing for Galatasaray .
Weird weather —–way down south ———-38 degrees and intermittent ice laden thunderstorms -big as marbles .
the long wait is over –
Absolutely spot on. I lost 2 lifelong Celtic fanatic brothers before the demise of the Huns and it will forever pain me that they did not live to see that mob in the 3rd division.
As you say, it will always be with them and they will forever be tainted with these 4 years in the gutter. I would have preferred them to have disappeared altogether but it isn’t going to happen, so if and when they make it to our league, I intend to enjoy the ride and watch them scramble for crumbs.
The SFA and the referees were always against us but it didn’t stop us winning the big cup and 9 titles in a row.
South Of Tunis
ice laden thunderstorms -big as marbles .
————————–
S o T You must be glad of that ,usually telling us of your endless sunny days grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
hh :o)
NOW: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_6music
Tom..,
Its not just today, when their youth were playing our youth last season, the board took the executive decision to name and treat them as the same club, this disappointed many and likely led to some giving up season tickets, and still the board cant understand why the renewals are down.
Most Celtic supporters IMO do not want any version them or have to accept the illegal abuse dished out by that support at Celtic Park.
The big fear IMO is that the board couldnt give a funkeys muck what the support want, as long as they pay up. The board appear more interested in corporate entertainment and glory hunters that turn up for four games a season than the bread and butter.
I honestly believe if the board do not make a stand/point on the new club and the behaviour of the new clubs support after the treatment of the Celtic support over the last 5 years then they will have signed the death warrant on our club. The Celtic support are not responsible for the decisions the board make and the board are arrogantly aware of that. No amount of emotional blackmail will work. My old man at 82 gave up his season ticket this season because he no longer recognises the club he grew to support and love, i have friends and family who are waiting with baited breath to see how tinkerbell fc and their hoard are treated by our board on their first visit to Celtic Park, they are ready to do the same as my dad if the board repeat their actions/declarations of the youth last season. That Tom, is the biggest fear for many, having to turn their back on the club they love the club that represented their morals and passion selling out for a dividend few will benefit from.
neil canamalar
Well said. And that’s from me, a naturally inclined, self confessed happy clapper.
HH jamesgang
Programme on BBC2 Scotland at half ten about HMRC/Deadco, apparently.
Jungle Jim
17:16 on
10 July, 2014
“Always stay to the final whistle:
*when punters would leave chapel right after communion my da would say “they widnae leave Parkheid early”, I felt like telling him they were as we were Billy Cotton then.
Scottish Cup Final replay 1963 and the Celtic end empties as the triumphalist chant “easy easy”.
archdeaconsbench @ 19:11
So I see.
archdeaconsbench @ 19:11
Are you sure it’s not at 10pm?
I, too, am treading water till I see what the end game is going to be for us.
To that end,I will continue to give the board my moral support and space to come to a just conclusion as to what to do with the Terrible Affliction at our gate.
I don’t know what my position will be if they are given the red carpet. It should be the red card.
Uncharted waters for most of us.
The real truth is, hun are not dead. OK, they’ve had a set back, but the bottom line is basically they will be back in the top league in a couple of years and all will be forgotten. Guaranteed. Their so called debt will be wiped out and they will go back to their repugnant old self, all forgotten.
Kinda makes me puke!!
KINGLuBO
Mozza
I thought it was half ten, in the slot for ‘Scotland 2014…’
Ye might be right tho……
‘United and Chelsea have also been given a £16m valuation for Wesley Sneijder.’
Given that only a few months ago PL had pledged £5-6M for the right target could we push the boat right out and get half of Sneijder?
;-)
HH jamesgang
Always knew the Hun in one guise or another would be back. Never bothered me, when the Hun is a threat to Celtic winning the Title it will bother me but as the Old Irish saying goes “Tis time enough to bid the Divil goodmorra when you meet him”.
hrvatski jim
A bit below that the belt that one mate-;)))
KINGLUBO , Must disagree they will be back and will be more poisonous and vicious than ever but the Liquidation and their so far failed efforts to win the Ramsden Cup will never ever ever be forgotten by them or by us.
TLWIO
We’ve won nothing
There’s still a cess put in Govan which fields a professional football team
They’re masquerading as the original odious outfit and sadly CFC are doing heehaw to prevent them
In fact our custodians appear to look forward to the very day they enter the SPL …. Increased season ticket sales ..so they expect
archdeaconsbench @ 19:21
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t6vf
Canamalar
Spot on
It has been reported that the outraged and outrageous are considering legal action against those who apparently crucified THEM.
Just how they will pay for this legal action, which won’t come cheap, is another story.
Maybe, and it is a big maybe, SDM in a streak of unrivalled philanthropy will dig deep and bail them out.
Who knows, they might even unearth those rarest of creatures, a group of highly competent lawyers wiling to danate their services to paranoid bampots, free gratis and for nothjing.
Just drove past Celtic park ….. The place looks completely different and there’s loads of gazebos all over the car park … None of which have a CQN logo on them
Hunners of cameras all over London road and the Celtic way too
And it looks like a few upgrades in the stadium including the big screens
In the BTM season, every Joe Bloggs on the street knew that, the fix was in for the CL money to go to the huns. Right?
So, if the dugs on the street knew what was going on, why did a Celtic board of directors, made up of, former cabinet ministers, former chairman of the Bank of England etc, not go public and take the situation up with, Uefa & Fifa and, demonstrate their clout by, “We wont be sitting at the back of the bus anymore.”
Oh yeah?
The gremlins have attacked that post.
Tontine Tim
19:15 on
10 July, 2014
Jungle Jim
17:16 on
10 July, 2014
“Always stay to the final whistle:
*when punters would leave chapel right after communion my da would say “they widnae leave Parkheid early”, I felt like telling him they were as we were Billy Cotton then.
Scottish Cup Final replay 1963 and the Celtic end empties as the triumphalist chant “easy easy”.
I for one stayed to what was a very bitter end.
Bitter though it was, I have always believed it to be the moment that it dawned on Robert Kelly that the job was too big for him.
Tom McLaughlin
18:45 on
10 July, 2014
the long wait is over –
The SFA and the referees were always against us but it didn’t stop us winning the big cup and 9 titles in a row.
*absolutely Tom and the MSM tae:
When we first emerged anti-RC was still prominent in Scotland and as has been recently reported one of our founding fathers, Joseph McGroary was one of the first Catholic lawyers in Glasgow since the reformation.
We were at first tolerated, a bunch of paddies playing a british game as opposed to hurling, along with other “Irish” sides such as Hibernian. However with our early success this acceptance soon wore off.
Our initial rivals were Queens Park who ironically on formation toyed with the name Celts for the club. Although they have their name on the Scottish Cup having won it 10 times, 8 of those before we came into existence, as a result of their resistance to turn professional they do not hold any Championship titles.
Our main rivals now became Third Lanark who were founding members of the Scottish League; their success was fleeting winning 1 title, 2 Scottish Cups and 3 Glasgow Cups in the late 19th early 20th centuries.
Their one and only title win was followed by our six-in-a-row, as such, somewhere a rival had to be found for the upstart Irish side from the east end of the city.
With the demise of early power houses Dumbarton (who were joint winners of the inaugural Championship), Renton (World Champions in 1888) and Vale of Leven (who had 5 Scottish Cup wins including a walk over the deid team who refused tae show up for a replay), the onus was now on a side formed in 1872 who incidentally do not have their name on the cup as they were over 20 years in existence before they won it, in fact we had won it twice before their first. We had also been Champions 4 times before their first, their shared win with the Sons of the Rock disnae really count.
Something had to give and the rising team fae Rhu who to give them their due had followed up their initial title win with another 3 were the chosen people by the powers that be at Lodge Park Garden.
Now let’s be perfectly clear here Scottish football was in a good shape so this wasn’t just about promoting the Kinning Parkers but actually stopping the tottie howkers, this was about operation ABC, Anyone But Celtic.
Every trick in the book was tried including venomous attacks by the MSM. One event stands to mind and that’s the Jimmy Quinn incident.
Near the end of the Cup semi at CP in 1905 with Celtic losing 0-2 to the new heroes Jimmy Quinn was ordered off, it seems that both he and craig the opposing full back went up for a high ball and as both came down the latter held Jimmy’s leg by his, Jimmy wrestled his leg free. At this the ref ordered Jimmy to the stand and in his report stated Jimmy had stamped and kicked the full back.
Celtic carried out investigations that night with Willie Maley visiting the “injured” player and invited him to sign a letter, which he did and witnessed by his mother, stating that he had not been kicked by Jimmy.
Other witnesses came forward corroborating Jimmy’s account including both linesman who were Celtic and thems committee men, 2 hun and 3 Celtic players.
Now here’s where the MSM come in, one stated that “a more brutal or uncalled for action we are glad to say has not been seen on a football field for many a day”, another wrote that “craig was savagely kicked on the face by Quinn”.
Jimmy was suspended for a month but the club took the case to court where Jimmy was awarded damages for the slanderous attack by the MSM, a public subscription was also arranged where the Mighty Quinn was presented with a gold watch “in recognition of the bad treatment he had received”. Incidentally Third Lanark beat the cheats 3-1 in the Final after a replay.
Although numerous teams won the Cup in a span of 25 years between huns wins including the aforementioned Third Lanark, Hearts, Dundee, Falkirk, Kilmarnock, Thistle, Morton, Airdrie and St Mirren, between the end of WWI and the start of WWII the hun would claim 16 Championships, coincidence? Govan Shipbuilders sporting division also won the 1st post war title.
In the 1946 the Victory Cup Semi after a replay we were already down 2 men to injury when with the deid team leading 0-1 they were awarded a dubious penalty when the centre thornton dived but failed to connect with the ball, so angry was Jimmy Mallan that he scrubbed out the penalty spot and said “There’s no penalty spot ref” and then booted the ball down the pitch for which he was ordered off.
Doon tae 8 men now. Captain George Paterson, a well mannered man, modest and easy-going he carried an air of assured authority but possessed a calming rather than daunting presence. An officer in the Boys Brigade Paterson was regarded as the very personification of fair-play and honesty had already complained about the MITB, a shipyard worker who made it no secret that he favoured the huns. In fact in a previous game against St. Mirren so blatant was his cheating that the Buddies threatened to leave the field, at half time the players caught the smell of alcohol from the ref’s breath.
By this time the entire Celtic team was adamant that the MITB was in no fit state to continue. They complained bitterly to manager Jimmy McGrory and Parkhead board member Robert Kelly immediately sought out SFA secretary george graham (he of the pull the Flag down fame).
Bob informed graham of his player’s suspicions and requested urgent action be taken. graham assured Bob the matter would be dealt with promptly. But as the teams took to the field for the second-half they were joined once again by the drunken ref.
George, who had never been booked in 11 seasons, was also ordered off and we finished the game with 7 men, both he and Jimmy Mallan (uncle of “For These are My Mountains” fame) were suspended for 3 months, soon after Celtic did George, who was never the same again, a favour and transferred him to Brentford.
I could go on but you get my drift, all we can do as the Big Mhan once said is fill the net and play football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football.”
Celtic have and always will be on their own, not even the Arabs (jerry kerr and the tangerine strip) and Hibees (let’s not forget harry swan and him jumping intae bed with bigot graham over the Flag) have stood with us, to quote an oul Irish saying “ourselves alone”.
Corkcelt,
I think the dilemma here is about how you meet him, as an honoured guest or the evil.
Did the board miss the bus?
19:30 on
10 July, 2014
In the BTM season, every Joe Bloggs on the street knew that, the fix was in for the CL money to go to the huns. Right?
So, if the dugs on the street knew what was going on, why did a Celtic board of directors, made up of, former cabinet ministers, former chairman of the Bank of England etc, not go public and take the situation up with, Uefa & Fifa and, demonstrate their clout by, “We wont be sitting at the back of the bus anymore.”
Oh yeah?
Miss the bus. They didn’t want to know what time it was leaving at.
@paulthetim
Paradise looking a bit different
https://twitter.com/paulthetim/status/487292889333243904/photo/1
aye some weeks are no sae braw ….if anyone feels inclined please say a wee prayer for my Dad ,took a turn then felt better so chased the para-medics.but rushed to Ninewells the next morning ….91 is a worrying age he says …and as Dad would also say we are Celtic we fear nothing ….
Braw
Evening all.
Turkeybhoy,
Good on you for trying to bring balance to the Israel ‘debate’. Hamas are vile murderers.