Neil McCann loses £210,000 tax battle against His Majesty

Neil McCann is facing a tax bill of over £200,000 after losing an Upper Tier Appeal against His Majesty.

The former Rangers star was a fixture on Sky Sports’ coverage of Scottish football for five years as part of the dimmest panel ever alongside David Tanner and Charlie Nicholas.

While McCann claimed that he was used as a freelance contractor HMRC argued that his contract was PAYE and liable to Income Tax and National Insurance without generous deductions for expenses.

In 2017 The Supreme Court found McCann to be one of the beneficiaries of Dave Murray’s disguised remuneration scheme that saw players pocket money from offshore funds that should have been used for hospitals, schools, feeding pensioners and supporting HM armed forces.

Insider magazine today revealed the latest bad news for the Ibrox hero:

Former professional footballer and Sky Sports pundit Neil McCann has lost his appeal at the Upper Tier Tribunal – leaving him with a tax bill in the region of £210,000.

HM Revenue and Customs deemed that McCann – while working via his limited company, McCann Media – had been operating as a disguised employee while engaged by Sky Sports from 2013 to 2018.

McCann contested this at a First Tier Tribunal hearing, arguing that he provided services in a genuinely freelance capacity and therefore belonged outside the scope of the IR35 off-payroll working rules. However, this appeal was dismissed in 2022.

McCann escalated his appeal to the Upper Tier Tribunal, which was heard in October 2023. On 5 April 2024, this appeal was dismissed, on the grounds that he could not be considered in business on his own account.

Seb Maley, chief executive at tax insurance provider Qdos, commented: “This is the latest in a long line of IR35 cases that highlight the devastating financial impact this legislation can have.

“Neil McCann won’t have set out to break the IR35 rules, but has been saddled with a tax bill in the region of £210,000.

“Fine margins and small details often decide IR35 status and in turn, whether a contractor is seen to be genuinely self-employed or a disguised employee – the key takeaway here is that contracts need to be rigorously reviewed from an IR35 perspective from the outset.

“The sheer complexity of this legislation means that honest mistakes are easily made, but as evidenced by this case, HMRC has little sympathy.”

These days McCann’s main media activities seems to be with BBC Scotland spiced up with appearances on ‘Rangers TV’ the in-house channel for the club formed in 2012 by Charles Green.