It looks like Her Majesty is finally chasing down the football players, managers and administrators paid through Employee Benefit Trust’s.
Legislation in the last budget allows HMRC to turn their attention on the employee rather than the employer to pick up the tab for seasons of cheating the public pursue.
Patriots like Barry Ferguson, Alex McLeish, Neil McCann, Steven Thompson, Billy Dodds and Alex Rae all squirreled millions away while hard working supporters suffered hardship through spending cuts on public services.
Today the Daily Record claimed that three former Scotland captains have been contacted by HMRC although the story appeared under the headline ‘Celtic and Rangers heroes among football stars facing financial ruin as HMRC send cash demands over tax avoidance schemes’.
A footballing source speaking to the Record claimed: “There is a feeling that we are being hung out to dry. Some of the boys are being hit with demands for sums of seven, eight or nine times what they invested into these schemes.
“Letters are coming through effectively saying, ‘You paid £1million into such and such a scheme a couple of years ago. We want £9million into our account right now. Pay up or we’re sending round the debt collectors to start seizing your assets. We’ll argue about the details later.’
“It’s terrifying and a lot of football players from the past and present are in a real state. No one wants to be declared bankrupt but some of the guys might have no other choice.”
According to the BBC former Scotland captain Barry Ferguson received £2.5m paid into an EBT with Ferguson now writing as a columnist for the Record.
While HMRC step up their efforts to reclaim missing tax payments there appears to be no appetite by anyone in football to punish Rangers (IL) for failing to declare the payments being made to their players and managers.
Asked about how he would feel about having titles and medals stripped former Scotland captain Alex McLeish said: “If a guy turns up at my door looking for the medals back, they’ll be getting a right-hander.
“No one can ever take away my memories. If they officially took away the titles, it would be difficult to accept — but no one could take away the achievements.”
The former Scotland manager added: “In terms of me going to Rangers I was guided by my lawyer, who assured me everything was fine and I’m still assured of that. We did nothing wrong.”
Click here for a list of Scotland captains.
