Supreme Court to hear ‘big tax case’ appeal

The UK’S highest court is to hear an appeal by the liquidators of oldco Rangers over the so-called “big tax case”.

Last year, judges at the Court of Session in Edinburgh granted BDO’S request to bring an appeal against an earlier legal ruling to the Supreme Court in London.

It comes after Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) won an appeal in November 2015 over the use of the now-outlawed employee benefit trusts (EBT) at the club during the first decade of the century.

That Court of Session ruling agreed with HMRC’S contention that the scheme, which involved payments to former Rangers employees, amounted to “a mere redirection of earnings which did not remove the liability of employees to income tax”.

The judges decided any income derived from employees’ services is classed as earnings and subject to income tax. The decision was in relation to Murray Group companies, including the liquidated company now called RFC 2012 plc, and does not affect the current regime at Ibrox.

BDO is bidding to overturn the ruling and five Supreme Court justices are to examine whether the Court of Session erred in law in reversing the original tribunal outcome.

Meanwhile, Rangers defender Danny Wilson felt his side “shut a few people up” at Celtic Park after some “ridiculous” pre-match predictions. Frank Mcavennie claimed before the match that Celtic could have a record eight-goal haul in their sights while his former team-mate, Andy Walker, labelled Rangers “timid”. But Rangers fought back at Parkhead to claim a 1-1 draw on Sunday.

Wilson said: “There was a lot written, there was a lot said about us and going into it people were saying there was going to be a record score and things like that – it was just ridiculous. It just felt that there was so little expected of us, rightly or wrongly, and it gave us that extra bit to shut a few people up.”