Ex-Rangers administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clark in £21m settlement

[Uilleam 5,948]

The Times reports on Messrs BDO's latest update to creditors.

Staggering, and staggering figures.

 

It appears that the Tax Authority demanded a ludicrous sum, presumably knowing that this claim had dubious merit, and would be indefensible under scrutiny, and forced a business into unnecessary liquidation, while, all the time, being prepared to settle for a %age of a %age of its initial, fanciful, bid.

 

If BDO's position is anywhere near well founded,  we must ask if HMRC's original claim was

-merely incompetent, or

-designed pour encourager les autres and devil take any/all other creditors, and the shareholders,  or

-constructed with malicious intent?

None of these are acceptable as explanation, of course. 

 

Rangers liquidators want to cut millions off tax bill

Greig Cameron

Monday December 20 2021, 12.01am, The Times

Football

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rangers-liquidators-want-to-cut-millions-off-tax-bill-q8hqv9w5h

 

Liquidators disputing about £51 million of the £64.5 million which is still being claimed by HMRC

 

The liquidators of the Rangers oldco have said they continue to make progress in discussions about reducing the size of the tax liability owed to HMRC.

BDO is disputing about £51 million of the £64.5 million which is still being claimed by the revenue.

In the region of £30 million has already been knocked off the original sum the tax authorities thought they were due when the company, which is now known as RFC 2012, went into insolvency almost a decade ago.

The bulk of what remains, almost £48.9 million, relates to the use of employee benefit trusts for former staff and players under what came to be known as the big tax case. BDO is disputing that figure along with amounts owed under inheritance tax, £1.3 million, and a separate smaller tax case, £1 million.

Much of what BDO has admitted the oldco is due is the £10.3 million of PAYE and National Insurance which went unpaid while unpaid while Craig Whyte was owner of Rangers.

 

In the latest update to creditors BDO said much of the focus of recent months was on court proceedings against the team from Duff & Phelps, which handled the administration of the oldco.

Last month Lord Tyre ruled in BDO’s favour in a Court of Session judgment which suggested the administrators, David Whitehouse and Paul Clark, had breached their duties by failing to sell marketable players and not considering a sale and leaseback of Ibrox stadium. However, the award of £3.4 million plus interest and costs was some way below the near £57 million which BDO had been aiming for.

 

In its update to creditors BDO confirmed a sum of £4.7 million had been received by its legal team. However, talks about how much of the costs of the case BDO can recover are ongoing.

 

BDO believes it will be in a position to pay further money back to creditors but warned the “timing and quantum will be dependent on the finalisation of the HMRC claim and the ultimate recovery of expenses from the former joint administrators”.

 

The cost of litigation relating to the Rangers wrongful prosecution scandal, involving Whitehouse, Clark, Charles Green and Imran Ahmad, has reached £39.9 million, government figures released last week revealed.

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Uilleam

[compo 7,055]

I wonder how much the taxman is owed by the self employed construction workers in the UK  who  just ignore national insurance demands 

[Sutton_blows_goats 5,348]

If this is proven to be true, then HMRC could have likely negotiated a deal with the OldCo for a lesser sum of monies and we would have been fine in the long-term. There is so much about this case that looks like manufactured grievance from the HMRC side. They claimed they wanted to set a precedent but I don't recall them following up our case with a grand return of revenue from other clubs/companies in similar cases.

 

Basically HMRC have cheated the tax payer out of revenue to pursue personal vendetta. We now need to know the who of HMRC drove this case and why. Public workers should be accountable to the public for mismanagement of public bodies and funds.

[Gonzo79 15,294]

Having had dealings with HMRC at work and on a personal level, I've concluded that they're a set of incompetent bastards, from top to bottom.  

[RANGERRAB 3,680]

2 hours ago, Sutton_blows_goats said:

If this is proven to be true, then HMRC could have likely negotiated a deal with the OldCo for a lesser sum of monies and we would have been fine in the long-term. There is so much about this case that looks like manufactured grievance from the HMRC side. They claimed they wanted to set a precedent but I don't recall them following up our case with a grand return of revenue from other clubs/companies in similar cases.

 

Basically HMRC have cheated the tax payer out of revenue to pursue personal vendetta. We now need to know the who of HMRC drove this case and why. Public workers should be accountable to the public for mismanagement of public bodies and funds.

I believe HMRC were manipulated by SLAB politicians and maybe one or two others to pursue this.

The timing of the initial claim was always critical i.e. just before the 2010 G.E. which Labour were expected to lose and did.

[Bill 13,717]

For me this has always had the smell of more than incompetence. There's no doubt HMRC is capable of some appalling misjudgements but this was so specifically directed and so sustained that I believe it was carefully targeted for reasons other than just recovering unpaid taxes. I think this was an opportunistic attempt to bury Rangers, conducted by our "cultural enemies".

[Gonzo79 15,294]

Agreed, Bill - the bastards part of my comment was driven by the Rangers situation and my own personal dealings with HMRC.  The incompetent part was driven by my professional dealings with them.

[RANGERRAB 3,680]

Arsenal got allowed to settle their EBT’s Rangers weren’t allowed. 

[Bill 13,717]

3 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

Agreed, Bill - the bastards part of my comment was driven by the Rangers situation and my own personal dealings with HMRC.  The incompetent part was driven by my professional dealings with them.

I experienced the bastard side of HMRC once or twice in business but it was just "probing" - testing the water - and went away when they got the right responses. The incompetent part was harder to deal with since there was enormous reluctance to admit any errors and certainly never a willingness to address any loss their incompetence might have caused. It paid to communicate through a good accountant.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Every year for the last 3 HMRC have made the same mistake overcharging me thousands in a month. 

 

I get lot's of apologies and to live without the money for a while and spend hrs on the phone.  

 

Incompetent indeed.