Almost at the same time as HMRC were issuing their statement the Daily Record has claimed that former Rangers players have had £70m knocked off their overdue tax bills!
Thursday’s edition of The Times revealed a £26m write down that could rise to £50m but the Record has taken things a little further by claiming a £70m reduction in the Big Tax Case.
As widely reported today and to clarify: HMRC won against Rangers’ tax avoidance in the Supreme Court, and did not miscalculate anything
— HMRC Press Office (@HMRCpressoffice) November 14, 2019
While the headline says ‘have £70m wiped off’, the story underneath subtly changes track to say ‘could be spared’.
Anxious former Rangers stars could be spared from financial ruin after the tax man agreed to write off about £70million of employee benefit trust cash.
The Daily Record can today reveal that a huge cast of Ibrox old boys have been told by HMRC that tens of millions of pounds worth of outstanding penalties and interest accrued on their controversial payment scheme have been cut as part of an agreement with liquidators BDO.
Barry Ferguson, Neil McCann, Alex Rae, Steven Thompson, Kris Boyd, Alex McLeish and Billy Dodds are among those that enjoyed a token contract with the SFA and SPL while an additional salary was paid into an offshore account apparently tax free. In July 2017 at The Supreme Court in London it was declared that the payments were disguised remuneration and liable to Income Tax and National Insurance.
After a day of excitement for fans of the old club who had their darkest conspiracy theories confirmed the story rather died on its feet last night.
A report in The Sun went through the story line by line in the form of 18 Questions and Answers coming to the conclusion that nothing had changed with The Times basically flying a kite to provide false hope.
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Followed up by the HMRC statement the obvious question is why a five-month-old story was revived with the current club in deep financial difficulties.
