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A number of former players from Rangers could face huge tax bills, running into seven figures, reports.
That is according to The Daily Record who claim that the unnamed figures missed a deadline of 5th April to come to an appropriate agreement with the British tax authority, HMRC. That follows a Supreme Court ruling that deemed that the payments made by the club under their EBT (Employee Benefit Trust) were not loans, but earnings that should have been taxed.
The controversial scheme enabled Rangers to compete and stay competitive with Celtic under former chairman David Murray by attracting top quality players to the club which they would not otherwise have been able to afford. When EBTs were subsequently outlawed, the club was faced with an enormous tax bill that it simply could not meet, forcing the club into liquidation in 2012.
A new company bought them, and the club was forced to reconstitute itself and reapply to the league, joining at the lowest tier of Scottish professional football in League Two. It took them five years to haul themselves back to the top tier of Scottish football again, but it seems that, for some ex-players, the legacy of that period still continues.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.