Today, a shocking revelation from Westminster.
According to The Record (I know, pinch of salt time, right?) the Tories have big plans to close certain tax loopholes and go after those who’ve benefited from them. Since you can’t take their word for anything at that paper I thought I’d check it out.
And you know what? Damned if they aren’t right on the money.
If you’ll pardon the pun.
Whilst the attention of the country was on the government’s scandalous plans to cut capital gains tax, paid for by slashing disability payments, this one kind of sneaked under most people’s radar. It amounts to a government decision to extend their attack on “disguised remuneration” to cover those who’ve not yet settled their debts.
Put simply; this is about EBT’s.
Every single person on the EBT recipient list is going to be getting a chap on the door.
Hector, he don’t take no prisoners. The window for people to voluntarily settle closed a while ago, and that means the tax authorities will not compromise on the final numbers owed.
Furthermore, and even more shockingly, senior accountants at the Treasury have said that the recipients will still face liabilities even if HMRC don’t win the Supreme Court appeal ….
The Record has speculated that some of the recipients may be forced into bankruptcy.
Awww. Wee shame for them.
All were highly paid footballers, or managers, or officials. All were able to enjoy a lifestyle far beyond what most of us do. All chose to collect wages through the dodgiest of dodgy schemes. Not one of them ever apologised for the state those policies left Rangers in or for the line of creditors who were screwed when that club collapsed.
Sympathy is going to be in short supply. Yesterday I wrote a piece on the generosity of Celtic fans (you can read it clicking here) but I suspect even that has been tested to destruction where people such as this are concerned. We won’t be holding any fund raisers to get them the money.
This whole affair is a running sore for Scottish football, and it didn’t have to be like that.
Had the SFA treated this as seriously as some people were urging, all that would remain would be for the individuals who benefited to get their affairs in order. The rest of us could stand back from that and let them work out whatever deals they wanted.
But, of course, we can’t do that, because so much of this has been left unresolved. Last week, Sevco were told to fork out £250,000 in fines relating to the EBT affair and the disgraced Lord Nimmo Smith verdict. The guilt of the club we called Rangers is an established, unchallenged, fact. If HMRC wins the Supreme Court appeal – as seems likely, as there appears to have been no defect in law in the decision Law Lords arrived at – the drum beat for a fresh investigation, and all that goes with it, will reach crescendo.
The governing bodies will simply have no choice.
It’s all well and good for people to say there’s “no appetite” for title stripping at the SFA. Well, there was “no appetite” for sending Sevco to start life in the bottom tier either. Most clubs, at least in the SPL, were getting ready to go along with a fix. Until the fans intervened.
The appetite is there, alright.
If Rangers were found to have paid players in brown paper bags, from the proceeds of a robbery, the “appetite” issue would never arise; there would be an immediate inquiry and titles would be stripped faster than you can say Jack Rabbit Slim.
This issue isn’t going away.
Even this heartless government of puppy killers wants to see justice done.