The Daily Record has warned Barry Ferguson that he is facing an unexpected £1m tax bill.
The former Clyde manager is a columnist for the Daily Record and picked EBT payments worth £2.5m covered by a side letter.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in favour of HMRC means that the recipients of the EBTs are now liable for tax because the payments were part of their terms and conditions rather than discretionary loans with no repayment date.
Highlighting Ferguson, David Murray and Stefan Klos the Record warns: “Murray’s Rangers splashed out nearly £48million in EBT payments to directors, managers, players and staff. Experts say the taxman could now demand around £24million back.
“The judges’ decision is final. After two tax tribunals, a Court of Session case and an appeal to the Supreme Court, the liquidators of oldco Rangers have nowhere else to go.
“And that could mean crippling financial pain for a whole squad of Ibrox old boys – from captain Barry Ferguson and legendary goalie Stefan Klos to far less heralded signings such as Nuno Capucho and Julien Rodriguez.”
The Record story fails to calculate penalties and interest which could bring the tax bill close to the entire value of the EBT.
Tax payments are the responsibility of the individual meaning that the side letters given to stars such as Neil McCann, Alex Rae and Steven Thompson are virtually worthless.
Murray has so far been virtually immune from criticism but with a dozens of former players facing bankruptcy the role of the former Rangers (IL) owner may finally be called into question.
CLICK HERE for the BBC list of EBT payments.
It is worth remembering that HMRC billed RFC in 2011 50% of amount owed penalty for tax evasion. This amount was not part of FTT-SC process.
— Rangers Tax-Case (@rangerstaxcase) July 6, 2017
