“The appeal is dismissed.” With those words at the Supreme Court in London at 9:52 this morning, Rangers tax cheating was established as fact. The charlatans who manipulated Scottish football fans were shown to be the disgrace they are.
Rangers made unlawful payments, totalling many millions of pounds, to footballers, who, by the club’s own admission in court, they would have been unable to recruit if they had to pay tax and National Insurance contributions for.
They lied to HMRC.
They also hid documents from HMRC, which only came to light during a City of London Police raid on Ibrox.
They hid documents from the SPL and SFA, failing to honestly register dozens of players.
They cheated the tax man.
They cheated the welfare state, the NHS, the police, councils, schools. They cheated the Army and other services.
The SPL’s (now called Scottish Professional Football League) Commission into these matters must now be set aside. It was conducted on the assumption that Rangers acted legally. Lord Nimmo Smith was clear that his conclusions were predicated on this point. A fresh commission is required, we cannot just allow the biggest cheats in British sporting history wander off into the distance.
The SFA has failed to call Sir David Murray to account, or the other directors of Rangers, who had explicit responsibility to ensure the club acted within the laws of the land and within the rules of football, both of which it failed to do.
Murray should be sine died. God knows, I cherish every moment Dave King controls things at Ibrox, but he was a director of Rangers with legal responsibility for its actions. They should all be censured.
NEW CQN PODCAST WITH SFA PRESIDENT ALAN RAE OUT NOW!
Episode 2 of ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ finds Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham discussing a variety of topical subjects concerning Celtic Football Club, including:
* Callum McGregor: The Youth of Today;
* Death of the Cult Hero;
* Norwegian Wood – Ronnie Deila’s Exit Interview;
* Farewell to The Stone Roses;
* Hillsborough: The Truth.
Paul John Dykes also chats to SFA President, Alan McRae, to challenge him over recent comments made about Celtic’s domination of Scottish football.
Connect with A Celtic State of Mind @PaulDykes and @CQNMagazine or just listen using the link below…
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This is a time for preperation.
Not venting your spleen nor suggesting others should act.
It’s you, me and every other club’s supporters who were taken for mugs.
Will we suffer further ignomy by standing idly by, now their cheating and lies are proven ?
Ps Tiny Tim, that’s a great suggestion earlier.
The Neinties.
The Home CL tie, is a real opportunity to raise awareness amongst the wider Celtic support.
We are just 60,000 individuals at the moment.
A STOR MHA CHROI on 6TH JULY 2017 10:57 AM
The board backed Martin O’Neill with serious money to close the gap on Rangers Mk I, now would be a good time to do likewise with Brendan Rodgers and widen the gap with The Rangers Mk II, and insure our dominance for years to come.
___
Honestly, could the gap get any bigger? An undefeated season where we won the treble, finished 39 points ahead and achieved our biggest ever win in Mordor.
Our off the field strategy of stability and sensible investment has got us here. We have a young team and coach who we will hopefully retain for another season.
They just lost to a team from Luxembourg and will be denied any money from a European run. Pedro is useless and he’ll need to be paid off. The squad will need ANOTHER overhaul.
I’d say it’s far more likely Sevco will go into administration than any sort of title challenge.
Aberdeen fans also call for stripping of titles
http://www.donssupporterstogether.com/index.php/news/dst-news/113-statement-big-tax-case-ruling
We rightly look to our club to call out the cheats and their statement yesterday calling for a review is the least we should expect. The question is where are the other clubs – nowhere – i think aberdeen said they will not make a statement despite some fans calling for one. As Delia Smith once proclaimed ‘ let’s be havin you’
standingaloneCSC
MURDOCHAULDANDHAY
timely post
The real shameful truth is that it is still only AT calling this out as the biggest sporting scandal the country has ever had.
thankfully the spirit of Willie Miller’s Bushy Tache lives on……………….
BANKIEBHOY1
I posted a few days ago that at times like this we should be relying on the BBC. They are keen enough to call out the Russian athlete cheating, the corruption at UEFA and FIFA etc. I know the BBC Scotland reporters are either huns or feel intimidated but what about the chief sports correspondents Mc Nulty etc.
They are a disgrace
Powerful action by the Aberdeen fans
Needs to snowball
And I think the “asterisk ” option would get more factions on board
Peter Lawwell browses Celtic forums to guage the feelings of the wider support.
Well, Peter, if you’re reading through here today –
YOU are a Celtic fan like the rest of us.
YOU know how galling it was to experience the white supremacists triumphalism through their years of victories.
YOU know how much money Celtic spent to keep up, how much money the support spent to back them, how much money we all lost due to a rigged competition.
And now YOU are in the position of power many many thousands of us would like to know for ourselves.
YOU run Celtic. YOU are the fulcrum, the lynchpin.
Never mind platitudes and appeasement, Peter; Bin tokenism, drop contrivance and pretence.
I want to know what YOU are going to do for your fellow Celtic supporters.
I want to know what YOU are going to do about those Cheating, Hun. Bastards.
https://twitter.com/AgentScotland/status/882911502616977409
aberdeen supporters poll has over 24 thousand fans wanting trophies stripped
The asterisk option is really the only way to deal with this – take cup competitions – teams knocked out in first or subsequent rounds by the cheats could say that we could have gone on and won it etc.
getthetitlesstrippedCSC
BANKIEBHOY
Being slow news week for football journalists down south,I’m hoping some of the big-hitters are preparing to enlighten their readers at the weekend.
Not much point expecting the SMSM to do much about it now. Unless word gets out to throw Minty under the bus.
The SFA and their appeasement of the huns have plunged Scottish football into the dark ages in the last twenty five thirty years.
We went from being a vibrant national game who’s team qualified for World Cups and Euro competitions to be the corrupt backwater we are now where only Celtic make any mark at all outside of Scotland.
This cannot go on after yesterdays decision and the asterix idea makes no sense to me at all, the titles should be stripped and the runners up awarded the victory.
The men responsible should be sin died from football once and for all.
Accept no substitutes, illegally won titles stripped from the cheats.
Only in Scotland would there be any hesitation to do the right thing and get the game back on track.
Unite and Fight this travesty…
I agree with Ernie.By the time next season starts the raw anger of the moment will be gone and it’ll be business as usual.There’ll be no title stripping and the new huns will still be around polluting the ether.Justice always plays second fiddle to money and prejudice.Remember,we all watched Neil getting assualted live on the telly and the quarterwit who did it got to walk away.It’s not what’s right that gets done it’s what’s right for business.
James Forrest up…
https://thecelticblog.com/2017/07/blogs/the-sfa-were-never-part-of-the-solution-they-are-part-of-the-problem/
Gene and Bobby Murdoch.
Sadly the scoddish scene is dutched by message management pro’s who operate on another Level.
The sleekit intimidation brought to bear, pardon the expression, is considerable.
A tipping point is required. It’s incredible that the court judgement in itself did not achieve the necessary cataclysm.
Did other clubs use the scheme?
Celtic are the only other Scottish club to have used the EBT scheme. They paid the Brazilian midfielder Juninho from a trust in 2005 but have since settled with HMRC. A number of clubs in England also operated the scheme and some have already settled with HMRC.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Typical BBC
BIG-CUP-WINNERS on 6th July 2017 11:29 am
The Home CL tie, is a real opportunity to raise awareness amongst the wider Celtic support.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Please, don’t do anything that gets Celtic in trouble with UEFA – don’t give away the moral high ground.
Gene / Bankiebhoy1
BBC Scotland, June 2013: “A football club, once incorporated, is indistinguishable in Scots law from its corporate identity.
“If the club was separate it would need its own constitution, committee members, trustees, etc.
“Rangers Football Club does not have that because it is incorporated.”
BBC Scotland McLaughlin, June 2017: “The court’s decision is not expected to have any material or financial impact on Rangers now as the club is owned by a different company”
Tied in knots much?
We need to get on the streets and protest.
It will take something extraordinary to defeat the corruption.
Should the CSA be calling a mass meeting?
Should CQN?
We need to get out there.
To those of you with a defeatist attitude all I can say is grab your seats in the back of the bus and enjoy the ride. Those of us with a ballsy attitude will press for change as the status quo is unacceptable.
Using the start of the season as an excuse for failure does not wash. Resolution of this will not happen overnight, as we all know despots will cling on to power with dear life.
viva la revolucion
There is only one sure fire way to force the clubs to act.
Deprive them of the green pound.
This is where the likes of the Celtic Trust can do some good for the game, organise boycotts of away grounds and see them act.
McLaughlin probably another on Jabba’s blackmail list……allegedly
Don’t know if this is word perfect, but a quote I’m recalling from Jimmy McGovern’s latest tv drama, ‘Broken’.
” Guilt is when you know you’ve done something wrong. Shame is when everybody else knows too”.
SANDMAN on 6TH JULY 2017 11:46 AM
Very much like the sound of that.
Time to stand up and be counted.
This is welcome
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15393946.Martin_Hannan__Arrogant_SFA_are_wrong_to_dismiss_further_action_on_Rangers_____and_should_not_underestimate_fan__anger/?ref=mrb&lp=1
BEATBHOY
Watched that episode last night – the comparison is stark
Bankiebhoy @ 11.58
Your final paragraph articulates what I was trying to say in my verbose post earlier today.
I remain utterly bemused by the indifference shown in response to the verdict.
Jimbo67
MURDOCHAULDANDHAY
Decent piece, I make only him and AT who have commented so far???
The game seemed much better when “they” were not in the top flight of Scottish football.
The fans have the power to cripple the SFA.
Agreed Celtic as a club needs to step up as do all other clubs by banning their fans attending their grounds and not going to their cesspit.
We held the match officials to rights and we can do it to the SFA.
Every club bans their support and boycotts their ground.
No fans attend cup games period.
It would be a start.
BABASONICOS71 on 6th July 2017 11:54 am
I agree with Ernie.By the time next season starts the raw anger of the moment will be gone and it’ll be business as usual.There’ll be no title stripping and the new huns will still be around polluting the ether.Justice always plays second fiddle to money and prejudice.Remember,we all watched Neil getting assualted live on the telly and the quarterwit who did it got to walk away.It’s not what’s right that gets done it’s what’s right for business.
==============
You and Ernie might both be right but not everyone thinks like you do and if matters do change it will be because your thinking is wrong.
Best bit for you guys is either way you win, whilst those that think different take the risk of losing..
If Edison’s parents had thought so negatively Id be sending this post by carrier pigeon.
new article posted.
THE EXILED TIM on 6th July 2017 12:09 pm
We need all groups who represent Celtic supporters to express their view. The CSA already did a on SFA a couple of weeks back and they and CSA are well acquainted with the facts.
Dons supporters trust have already made a statement to galvanise action.
http://www.donssupporterstogether.com/index.php/news/dst-news/113-statement-big-tax-case-ruling and they have contacted other NE trusts.
Its time for all good men to come to the aid of the party. (Then party :) )
The appeal decision as a whole can be gleamed from reading the following paragraphs of the jusgement.
HMRC changed their argument subtly and started from the premis that they did not want to have to prove that the trusts and loans from the trusts were shams and they stuck to their guns on that. What they reinforced was that any payments to or through these vehicles (whether classed as loans or anything else) were no more than a redirection of earnings which were liable to tax.
In the jusgement, you will see that the supreme court rely on the findings of the majority in the main but reverse one crucial finding about who is in control of the trusts etc.
3.The Advocate General for Scotland on behalf of HMRC appealed to the Inner
House of the Court of Session and advanced a legal argument which had not been
presented to, or at least had not been developed before, the tribunals, namely that
the payment of the sums to the remuneration trust involved a redirection of the
employee’s earnings and accordingly did not exclude those earnings from the charge
to income tax.
8.Thus, as Lord Drummond Young stated in delivering the impressive
judgment of the court, the central concept in the tax regime governing employment
income is the payment of emoluments or earnings derived from employment; and
an employer who pays emoluments or earnings to or on account of an employee is
obliged to deduct tax in accordance with the PAYE Regulations
17. As this is an appeal on a point of law and as the UT did not make separate
findings of fact, I derive my summary of the facts from the judgment of the majority
of the FTT. Some of those findings are terse and require explanation from the
documents which were before the FTT and have been made available to this court.
Dr Poon, who wrote the minority judgment, made additional findings of fact, which
she derived principally from the documents before her. I do not have regard to her
findings in so far as they are inconsistent with those of the majority. I refer to her
findings on two occasions, first, where they explain findings by the majority which
need clarification (para 29 below) and, secondly, as a check on a conclusion which I have reached based on the majority’s findings (para 27below). I state below when I am drawing on her findings for these purposes.
The majority of the FTT recorded (para 207) that RFC offered the prospective employees this form of deal, combining a payroll payment and the transfer of funds through the trust mechanism on a “take it or leave it” basis.
24.The Scottish Football Association (“SFA”) required football clubs to register players’ contracts with it.
RFC registered the contracts of employment but did not disclose the side letters to the SFA.
The FTT summarised the position (in para 103(v) of the majority decision) in these terms: “the employee could also be appointed protectorwith extended powers in respects resembling trusteeship, but without title to the trust assets, and not enabling the conferring of any absolute beneficial right on the employee himself”.
27.This statement by the majority of the FTT is accurate in so far as it states what the employee could do while he was protector. But the employee had, as I have said, a power to appoint someone else as protector in his place and that person as protector had power to alter the beneficiaries of the subtrust. The majority of the FTT recorded (paras 23 and 227) that foreign players who left RFC and moved to reside overseas were able to “unscramble” the legal framework and receive an absolute right to the moneys which had been put in the subtrust. The majority of the FTT stated that this could be done “only with the consents of those interested in the capital of the sub-trustconcerned”. I am not persuaded that that is correct.
The basis of this appeal
32.The majority of the FTT found that the trusts and the loans were valid and were not shams. It refused to hold that the trustee was a cipher and concluded that the trustee genuinely exercised discretion in its appointments upon the sub-trusts and the making of the loans. HMRC does not challenge those findings in its defence of this appeal.
33. HMRC succeeded in its appeal before the Inner House on the basis that income, which is derived from an employee’s work qua employee, is an emolument or earnings, and that it is assessable to income tax, even if the employee requests or agrees that it be redirected to a third party. The Inner House held that the scheme, which involved payments into the Principal Trust and the application of the funds
through the sub-trusts, amounted to a redirection of the employee’s earnings and did not remove the employer’s liability to pay income tax under the PAYE system. It held that the redirection occurred when the employing company paid the sums to the Principal Trust; the fact that the employee took the risk that the trustee would not apply the funds as he requested was irrelevant. The payments by the employing
company into the Principal Trust were derived from the employee’s work as an employee and so were emoluments or earnings.
Every time a newspaper article or news report talks of ‘Oldco’ being liquidated, it is saying that Rangers Football Club died, given the 1899 incorporation. To then talk about them as if they are still here reduces everything to a nonsense. In the same way that the resolution 12 bhoys got an unexpected admission from Andrea Traverso that Sevco is a new club, maybe the demand for title -stripping, and the resistance to it, will force this fact to be recognised.
Here’s an example from the Scotsman today.
“The so-called “big tax case” came to a conclusion yesterday as five Supreme Court judges unanimously dismissed an appeal by BDO, the liquidators of oldco Rangers, bringing to an end a seven-year legal dispute that involved the club’s use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs).”
And. “Although yesterday’s verdict will not have a direct impact on the current iteration of Rangers, the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) have been urged to take action, with demands the club be stripped of the titles it won while using the EBT scheme.”
Start making sense!