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Rangers win Employee Benefit Trusts tax case

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21st Nov 2012
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A first-tier tribunal has ruled that payments made to players and staff at Rangers Football Club in a contentious tax scheme were not illegal.

The corporate entity that formerly housed Rangers, which is now in liquidation, had the scheme in place between 2001 and 2010 to pay £47.65m to players and staff. It argued that the payments were loans rather than actual earnings and not subject to tax.

Following a challenge from HMRC the club appealed its use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs), arguing that the payments were loans which can be repaid.

The decision was not unanimous with one of the three members of the tribunal dissenting from the verdict.

The ruling [TC02372] said: “The majority view reflects the argument that the controversial monies received by the employees were not paid to them as their absolute entitlement. The legal effect of the trust/loan structure is sufficient to preclude this. Thus the payments are loans, not earnings, and so are recoverable from the employee or his estate."

HMRC is now considering an appeal.

In May 2011 Craig Whyte bought the club for £1 and eight months later placed Rangers in administration after running up PAYE and VAT debts to HMRC amounting to £9m.

Rangers then went into liquidation in June after it emerged that HMRC was owed £21m by the club and was officially placed in liquidation at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in October.

Former Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston claimed last night that the club would not have gone out of business if the verdict of the tribunal had been known earlier.

He said: “If you wind the clock back to the alternatives that the bank [Lloyds] and Murray Holdings had with respect to alternatives, the big hang-up was the contingent liability with this massive tax liability hanging over our heads.”

Sir David Murray’s company, Murray International Holdings (MIH), owner of the Ibrox club at the time of the payments, welcomed the verdict:

“While MIH has at all times respected the privacy of the tax tribunal proceedings, a substantial quantity of confidential information relating to the case has become available for public consumption, stimulating considerable discussion and often ill-informed debate.

“This has been wholly inappropriate and outwith the fundamental principles of natural justice. We therefore formally request that the relevant authorities investigate how these sensitive details have been released so widely,” a statement from MIH said.

HMRC said it was disappointed to have lost at this stage of the court process: "The decision was not unanimous and the diligence of HMRC investigators was acknowledged by the whole tribunal.

"HMRC is committed to tackling avoidance and it is right that we challenge the type of avoidance seen in this case," the spokesperson said.

The liquidators, BDO, have also said they are reviewing the tribunal's decision closely so as to determine the impact on the liquidation.

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Replies (28)

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By markfd
22nd Nov 2012 02:37

HMRC abuse of money, power and process...

...so as I recollect (not being a Rangers fan by the way), the trigger for the administration and subsequent liquidation was HMRC telling Craig Whyte that even if they lost the tribunal they would carry on appealing indefinitely.  So irrespective of what the judgement said, HMRC would continue to use public money and resources to attack Rangers.  Frankly I have always found this behaviour of HMRC totally unacceptable which they simply use, in my opinion, to unlawfully bully small businesses into submission.  In this case (not a small business obviously) it clearly meant that no-one in their right mind would recapitalise Rangers.

Unacceptable HMRC conduct.

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By J Lessels
22nd Nov 2012 12:10

HMRC within their rights

Regardless of whether the scheme was legal, Rangers have clearly been playing very hard ball with HMRC. They can't expect HMRC to wear kid gloves, when dealing with tax avoidance. Big boys games, big boys rules.

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By justsotax
22nd Nov 2012 12:55

You can imagine the contract talks...

player - so I want £20k per week....

Rangers - you can have that but you will get it in the form of a loan....

player - but if it is a loan won't i need to repay it....

Rangers - in theory yes...but we will ensure you never have to repay it...

player - but still sounds risky!?

Rangers - you will have a tax rate of 2% instead of 50%....

player - where do i sign?

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Replying to mbee1:
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By guberman
27th Nov 2012 16:14

Rangers

What makes you think that the players know the difference between 50% & 2%!

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Replying to johngroganjga:
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By kudlit
01st Aug 2013 08:27

This . . .

guberman wrote:

What makes you think that the players know the difference between 50% & 2%!

Hahaha. I LOLed at this. 

---

Australia Finance

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By hiu612
22nd Nov 2012 16:02

Compensation

Do readers think that once this case has escalated to a more senior court, if Rangers eventually win they can / will sue HMRC for putting them into administration over a debt which proved not to be payable? Presumably there is economic loss for which the club could be compensated if this were the case and they were successful.

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Replying to dannybard:
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By georgelewislimited
23rd Nov 2012 11:26

You have misunderstood the situation.

HMRC didn't put the company into administration, the directors did that themselves. It's true that, had they not done so, HMRC would have done so. However, that was over PAYE which had been unpaid for over 9 months. The Big Tax Case, as it has become known, had nothing to do with the decision to put the company into administration.

 

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Replying to dannybard:
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By ahickie
23rd Nov 2012 14:34

Reason for administration

It wasn't actually this debt that forced Rangers into administration, though, it was the non-payment of current PAYE/NIC and possible VAT liabilities under the new regime, albeit some of these may not have been paid because of the knock on effect of the Big Tax Case hanging over the club.

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By liam@adplus
23rd Nov 2012 11:02

HMRC have every right to go after tax that is due if they deem it is payable. Whether they take it to the first tier, second tier or wherever, if they believe they can prove the tax is due, why not?

We do it with clients when money is due, HMRC may not be a business but with so much to collect I understand why they go after the big ones, my problem with HMRC is they try to go after the little guys first!!

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Replying to bettybobbymeggie:
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By ThornyIssues
23rd Nov 2012 12:40

Really!!!

<a href="mailto:liam@adplus">liam@adplus</a> wrote:

HMRC have every right to go after tax that is due if they deem it is payable. Whether they take it to the first tier, second tier or wherever, if they believe they can prove the tax is due, why not?

We do it with clients when money is due, HMRC may not be a business but with so much to collect I understand why they go after the big ones, my problem with HMRC is they try to go after the little guys first!!

 

I just hope that HMRC "deem" you owe them 100% of your (gross) salary going back six years. HMRC should not be allowed to "deem" anything. Not tax, not employment status, nada. By thinking like that, you vindicate HMRC's assertion that they need vague and woolly tax laws so that they can either use Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt to coerce undue tax or to burn taxpayer money in futile and/or vindictive litigation, simply because they can and it is not their money. 

 Rangers and others took professional advice and mitigated tax using the vague and woolly tax laws to their advantage. EBTs were not illegal and thus HMRC's litigation was futile.

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Replying to johnclarke795:
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By georgelewislimited
23rd Nov 2012 13:50

Given that HMRC's position was upheld in 30% of the EBT's reviewed in this cae, it can hardly be said that their litigation was futile.

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By cmg
23rd Nov 2012 11:08

The article says: "The

The article says: "The liquidators, BDO, have also said they are reviewing the tribunal's decision closely so as to determine the impact on the liquidation."

Does this mean that, with with the payments now having been officially proved to have been loans, the liquidators will now seek to recover all those loans, or at least those of them that are not time-barred?

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Replying to MrsLadyWoman:
By slipknot08
26th Nov 2012 17:01

repayable loans?

"Does this mean that, with with the payments now having been officially proved to have been loans, the liquidators will now seek to recover all those loans, or at least those of them that are not time-barred?"

No (as the law stands at this moment in time, i.e. not second guessing the results of any appeals to higher courts): the loans were made by the Trustees of the EBT, which is an independent third party and has complete discretion over whether it makes loans, appoints on new trusts, etc (OK in an ideal world, but that is the majority decision as it currently stands).

I don't see how the administrator has any recourse against the players to recall the loans, because they were made by an unconnected (in the tax sense) third party, unless of course the administrators are able to invoke some sort of "deprivation of assets" provision (which would seem difficult as the club could argue in defence that its payments to the EBT were made in good faith, following professional advice on a tax saving scheme, which - at first instance - has actually succeeded); it is the (old) club which is in administration, not the trustee.

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By dav0512
23rd Nov 2012 11:18

 

 

Not entirely sure but if the loans  to the players were paid from the Trust I don’t see how BDO could claim repayment. The money paid to the trust from the company is not a loan?

 

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By georgelewislimited
23rd Nov 2012 11:24

I have read a fair chunk of the 145 pages of the FTT judgement. Whilst I understand that the mainstream media are coming to conclusions based on little specialist knowledge, those conclusions do not reflect the actual findings of the FTT. I am, however, surprised that this publication has relied on the headlines of the case, rather than the reality.

There were approximately 100 cases of payments from EBT's being reviewed. It is true that the majority of these were found to have been loans. However, approximately 30% were found to be remuneration.

One of the FTT's conclusions was that the assessments were to be "reduced" accordingly, not "removed".

I therefore cannot accept the general conclusion that RFC have "won" this case.

 

 

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Replying to johngroganjga:
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By naomi2000
27th Nov 2012 15:49

Read the report

 

Like George, I read (ok skimmed) the full report with it's "colouful" characters . I found the minority report very troubling (particularly when read in conjunction with the BBC Scotland coverage ) and cannot help wondering whether the majority report will be upheld on appeal. 

 

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By The Rogue
23rd Nov 2012 11:38

Loans?

Why were Rangers making loans to it's players?  Couldn't they afford to pay the gas bill?

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By Albasas
23rd Nov 2012 12:11

Institutionalised 17th C Style Political Vendetta

The main issue as I see it here is that HMRC, alleged, but lost on Appeal at the FTT, on their claim that the oldco Rangers EBT's avoided £47.65 m employment taxes (big tax case) through their use of these schemes. Unfortunately, it was perfectly within HMRCs remit to do this, given what was at stake, so Rangers were made a test case of. Rangers are more than a football club, and a way of life, and a social institution, for a great many people in Scotland and around the world. So another more sinister agenda is suspected. For me it throws the whole current tax compliance check procedure as covered by the Legislation introduced 1 April 2009 into sharp focus. If HMRC can play 'pin the tail on the donkey' in terms of tax liabilities surely it has to compensate when it get it wrong to the extent the did here and a business fails indirectly, as happened here? Also:

1. Why was Craig Whyte allowed to run up another £8-9m in unpaid employment taxes while this was still going on - the small tax case. HMRC new of him and his methods so they must have had a strategy to deal with him from previous experience? Why can't Whyte not be made personally liable for that deliberate act under current legislation?

2. Why did HMRC refuse to deal with Craig Whyte? Was this as a consequence of 1. above or  not? The CVA was rejected by HMRC for that reason. Had it been accepted Rangers oldco would still be alive and kicking; and

3. Why didn't Sir David Murray seek HMRC clearance for his MIH (the RFC oldco holding company's) EBT's?

Whyte was faced to make horrible business decisions in the face of all this some of it of his own making some not. Some the hapless manager McCoist's on the park - out of Europe loss of that cashflow etc.

On balance it looks like someone somewhere in  HMRC tried to put Rangers out of business and they very nearly succeeded. In whose interest was that then? From a taxman and a Rangers perspective its been a lose-lose Case.

Something stinks here! Looks like a perfectly justified tax compliance matter turned into an  institutionalised 17th C political vendetta. 

 

 

 

 

 

   

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By lam_ac
23rd Nov 2012 12:18

Loans

Whether the tax avoidance is ultimately determined to be legal or not, effective or not, this is another example of sheltering "income" from tax which massively reduces the burden of tax paid by those that can afford such strategies.  This is the same logic used by the large corporations who operate from an offshore base this denying the Exchequer revenue. The massive sheltering of taxes does nothing to aid recovery, ultimately to everyone's detriment. I wonder (and I say this as a football fan) what supporters, who chastise "Big Corp PLC" for their machinations would think of their heroes doing no better

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Replying to Tornado:
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By mackthefork
29th Nov 2012 00:24

I would guess..

lam_ac wrote:

Whether the tax avoidance is ultimately determined to be legal or not, effective or not, this is another example of sheltering "income" from tax which massively reduces the burden of tax paid by those that can afford such strategies.  This is the same logic used by the large corporations who operate from an offshore base this denying the Exchequer revenue. The massive sheltering of taxes does nothing to aid recovery, ultimately to everyone's detriment. I wonder (and I say this as a football fan) what supporters, who chastise "Big Corp PLC" for their machinations would think of their heroes doing no better

They they would be fairly happy, as footballers can do no wrong, and big corp doesn't score in the last minute to often.

Regards

MtF

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By gj3133
23rd Nov 2012 12:48

New legislation changed the position subsequently.

Of course,  this has all changed since the time that Rangers used their scheme.  The 'disguised remuneration' legislation was enacted in July 2011 and applies to EBTs from 6 April 2011 onwards (with certain transactions also being brought within the new legislation if they were carried out between 9 December 2010 and 5 April 2011 inclusive).

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Replying to John Stokdyk:
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By georgelewislimited
23rd Nov 2012 13:51

...

gj3133 wrote:

Of course,  this has all changed since the time that Rangers used their scheme.  The 'disguised remuneration' legislation was enacted in July 2011 and applies to EBTs from 6 April 2011 onwards (with certain transactions also being brought within the new legislation if they were carried out between 9 December 2010 and 5 April 2011 inclusive).

 

Given that HMRC's position was upheld in 30% of the EBT's reviewed in this cae, it can hardly be said that their litigation was futile.

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By Tom 7000
23rd Nov 2012 14:49

Who gets the money?

Lets suppose I pay £100 on the turnstile to watch a game...say Man Utd.

Out of the £100, HMRC get £16.66 vat leaving £83.33

This £83.33 is available to pay Wayne Rooney...well net of the employers NIC at £13.8%  = 10.10

So wayne gets £73.23 Gross

 

Well he doest really as he has to pay 50% tax and 2% NIC  = £38.07

 

This leaves wayne with a whopping great  £35.16 take home pay out of my £100

 

So remind me again...who makes the money out of football......

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By carnmores
23rd Nov 2012 16:33

well its not EBTs anymore its EFRBs

that are all the rage with promissory notes etc , these may be more difficult to challenge

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By yeboyye
23rd Nov 2012 23:19

EBT's

From reading the above it looks like there were other ETB's in existence.  Were these all operated by football clubs or were other sports involved?  Surely there are bigger clubs in England that HMRC could have chased for bigger sums of money?  How many other ETB's were keeping their fingers crossed that HMRC would not "randomly select" (self-assessment 1996!) their file?  This appears to have resulted in an enormous cost for the ETB randomly selected; and it looks like they are into injury time.

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Replying to Paul Scholes:
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By ThornyIssues
26th Nov 2012 17:14

Nope!

yeboyye wrote:

From reading the above it looks like there were other ETB's in existence.  Were these all operated by football clubs or were other sports involved?  Surely there are bigger clubs in England that HMRC could have chased for bigger sums of money?  How many other ETB's were keeping their fingers crossed that HMRC would not "randomly select" (self-assessment 1996!) their file?  This appears to have resulted in an enormous cost for the ETB randomly selected; and it looks like they are into injury time.

I know of companies, including large household name multi-nats who paid "ordinary" employees either partly or substantially via EBTs.  

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By guberman
27th Nov 2012 11:32

Rangers

Now that the tribunal have decided that the payments made to players were loans, will the liquidators be able to pursue the players for repayments of these loans?

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By Clapham
05th Feb 2013 11:39

Do we have confirmation that HMRC have sought leave to appeal?

Does anyone know if HMRC have sought leave to appeal? This deadline for this has passed and documents shoudl have been filed. It would be interesting to read their grounds

Answer out now. It will be interestign to read their grounds.

 

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