This whole HMRC debacle

[rbr 1,247]

As the sun slowly drops over the horizon and the beginning of the end , or should that be the end of the beginning approaches , I thought it might be apt to go ovger what we know , think we know or even just guess at what has brought us to this point .

 

The main protaginists are MIH , SDM , Bain , McClelland , AJ ,McIntyre and Grant Thornton as the auditors .

 

Now what we know is that some where around the start of 2000 as the Advocatt era was in full throw , someone within MIH thought it apt to use the EBT scheme that they were using to help offset the wages of the foreign legions that were being brought in by both Advocatt and SDM, ( please bear with me on this because I have first hand knowledge that a lot of the signings were not the managers ).

 

As the financial hole started to appear , SDM did a runner for the first time and the patsy that was John McClelland was brought in, Advocatt left and Eck was installed , players were sold but amazingly championships were won .

 

SDM reappeared , for a short space in time , Bain was appointed CEO , McIntyre as Chief Financial officer and the auditors who were quite happily signing off the accounts with no caviats were G T .

Eck finally gets found out/fed up even after the charlotan in Charlotte Sq promises signings and minty moonbeams , PLG arrives and quickly departs , SDM calls for Walter to bail him out .

 

Things do not improve financially ( in the long term )even after the Murray/MIH bail out , and though we get the debt down to approx £5 million , the season after the glorious run to Manchester , we get pumped out of europe yet again and SDM does what he always does when the critiscism gets too hot , he paniced and allowed Walter to spend massively on players causing the debt to rocket yet again , LLoyds eventually get fed up and remove SDM with another patsy in AJ taking the helm .

 

Around this time HMRC start sniffing around the MIH pension and renumeration trust and low and behold after shaking the tree we fall out , now these EBT have been in operation for years but some bright spark decides to (so the story goes ) issue players with 2 contracts ( again bear with me on this )stating they dont need to pay tax on the second contract .

 

 

Fast forward to last April /May , Craig Whyte eventually agrees to buy the club for £1 , even after the independent club committee goes against him , ( though several of these same board members wanted to but the club but also increase the debt ), CW also to many peoples amazement agrees to

become liable to pay the entire tax bill should we lose ( or should I say the club and not SDM would be liable for the tax bill ).

 

Now to the present , we also know that the QC is being paid for by MIH , we also know that MIH only can make any deals with HMRC , we also know that the tax enquiry does not just include Rangers but the entire MIH group that is covered by the pension and renumeration trust but that same groups liability has never been disclosed .

 

Now all of the figures I mentioned earlier including Paul Murray , Dave King and John Greig have sat on the Rangers board for years yet no one spoke out about the dangers of these contracts , the auditors , who at present are refusing to sign of on the accounts are the same auditors who for nearly 10 years gave the same accounts a clean bill of health.

 

Questions need asked and answered , who initially came forward with the EBT scheme , was it altered from the MIH model and if so by whom , when did it become apparent there was a problem and why did the EBT,s continue to be used , and if we lose will criminal charges be laid at the door of anyone .

 

Lastly if we do go into administration/liquidation the fall out will last for years , the European Financial fair play rules will cripple us for at least 3 years , as for what will happen domestically will depend on the increasing influence that Lawell has over the ever bumbling Regan.

 

Please feel free to add your own thoughts or point out any glaring mistakes I have made .

[chilledbear 16]

With MIH being in overall control, what is to stop them making a deal, so that Rangers Football Club take the full hit, and Murray and MIH get off scot free??

 

Or is that certain to happen anyway?

[rbr 1,247]

With MIH being in overall control, what is to stop them making a deal, so that Rangers Football Club take the full hit, and Murray and MIH get off scot free??

 

Or is that certain to happen anyway?

 

Again chilledbear thats another question that needs answered , no where has the MIH groups possible liability ever been talked about band if they are not liable for a single £ then who made the decision to use/change the EBT model from evasion to avoidance

[Danny 0]

I agree completely on the point about EBT - it all stems from this - whose idea was it?

 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/employee-benefit-trusts.htm

 

For anyone (such as myself) not fully clear on what it means. I understand it all relates to offshore payments made to avoid tax on big wages and transfers back in the day.

 

It seems to be the crucial part which caused our financial meltdown.

[Guest Dutchy]

And we weren't the only ones to do it. Again, I remember reading about Portsmouth winning their case against HMRC a couple of years ago for the very same activity.

 

But then, was the government, thus the tax collector in such a mood to argue the case for the tax payer.

 

I'm rather surprised that a tory government is attacking a business so doggedly, but then, it is only a Scottish business.

[capstans 0]

Murray used and abused our club he should be in the dock, many who flagged this snake medicine seller up were castigated and ridiculed, many others have obtained perfect hindsight and others are asking why he hid the small tax bill from his board

[Bluedell 5,353]

Do we know that Rangers can't negotiate for themselves? What proof has there been to that?

 

In respect of MIH's involvement, it looks fairly minimal. It looks to me as if most of it was in respect of Rangers. I therefore can't see why MIH would insist on Rangers not being able to deal with it.

 

The scheme was set up in 2000, which was a different time from now. You could get away with a lot more off-shore than you can these days (post 9/11 when the financial world changed significantly). It could be that nobody thought to revisit the scheme and it's likely that they thought that they had got away with it in the past so why not carry on using it.

 

From the very little I know about the scheme it seems that it was never that sound and depended on the argument that payments were discretionary. What footballer would be happy to receive discretionary payments? Surely their agents would insist on it everything being contractual?

 

The Rangers case is different from the Portsmouth one, as far as I'm aware, as the Portsmouth one was based on image rights.

[Bluedell 5,353]

others are asking why he hid the small tax bill from his board

 

Did he? How do you know that he hid it?

 

 

Edit - also does anyone understand what the small tax bill was about? I don't recall ever reading what the details were.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Bluedell

[capstans 0]

You would have to ask our previous chairman, he stated that the small tax bill came as a complete surprise, that if it had been known about he would have allowed for it in the accounts at the time.

[Bluedell 5,353]

You would have to ask our previous chairman, he stated that the small tax bill came as a complete surprise, that if it had been known about he would have allowed for it in the accounts at the time.

 

So how does that mean that Murray hid it from the rest of the board?