Glasgow Times

Ex-Rangers players and staff urged to seek advice over EBTs

- BY MARTIN WILLIAMS

FORMER Rangers players and staff who benefited from an elaborate tax avoidance scheme face paying back millions of pounds by the taxman, it has been claimed.

They reportedly have weeks to approach the taxman over a settlement or face a bigger bill.

It comes after Supreme Court judges upheld a Court of Session ruling that about £50million paid to dozens of Rangers players and staff through Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) were salaries, not loans, and liable for tax.

The scheme was administer­ed by the Murray Group, then majority shareholde­r of the Glasgow club, from 2001 to 2009.

Among those who benefited from the scheme were Barry Ferguson – who received £2.5m, Dutch player Ronald de Boer who ‘borrowed’ £1.2m and former manager Alex McLeish with £1.7m. Sir David Murray, the club’s former owner, received £6.3m.

Now it is claimed the beneficiar­ies of the EBTs, many of whom were led to believe these were loans that would never have to be repaid, are being warned to seek “urgent advice”.

BBC Scotland says a letter sent earlier this month by Trident Trust, a Jersey-based company has issued warnings.

It says: “HMRC has confirmed that it will seek to recover all income tax found by the Supreme Court to be due and that, where HMRC is unable to recover the tax from the employer, it may transfer the liability for unpaid tax...to employees or former employees.”

The letter from earlier this month adds: “If you do not come forward voluntaril­y and seek to settle on preferenti­al terms, HMRC could well pursue you directly and make an assessment on a less favourable basis.”

Trident Trust is said to have stressed it is not offering advice, rather urging the players and staff involved to seek expert advice on how to deal with the situation.

The case to the Supreme Court was taken by the liquidator­s of RFC2012 plc, the company formerly known as Rangers Football Club before its financial collapse in 2012.

It meant that the HMRC could gain a small proportion of what they are owed from the liquidatio­n.

But it had been speculated that players could be made liable.

Last year Andy Wood, a director of Enterprise Tax Consultant­s could face bankruptcy when the seven-year Big Tax Case saga ended.

HMRC has refused to comment on whether they were seeking recompense from players and staff saying: “We don’t comment on identifiab­le taxpayers.”

 ??  ?? Former staff and players of Rangers have been warned they should seek ‘urgent advice’ over EBTs
Former staff and players of Rangers have been warned they should seek ‘urgent advice’ over EBTs

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