Bottom line, no-one really knows. With our failure to qualify for the Champions League, we've blown a £15m hole in our accounts which means we'll run at a loss this season. We have a tax tribunal coming up this month which could be problematic, as we've allegedly been using a tax avoidance scheme for 10 years to avoid paying income tax on player's salaries. The media up here is reporting it as being potentially £49m, but their source for this figure is our incompetent former CEO, so while our liability could be that high, I'll take it with a pinch of salt.
Basically, if HMRC win their case against us and ask us for the full £49m, we're ****ed. However, we're currently engaged in a game of high stakes poker with the tax man - our owner Craig Whyte has very publically stated that in the event of something happpening that would threaten our solvency (ie HMRC turning up at our door and asking for £49m), he wouldn't hesitate to put us in administration. Now should that happen, because of the way the club was taken over, Whyte is the preferred creditor and would get back every penny he has invested so far, with every other creditor, including the tax man, fighting over the scraps that are left. So the message from Whyte seems to be "you've got no chance of getting your £49m." Whether that encourages HMRC to do a deal, who knows. To make it more fun, our lawyers reckon we stand a reasonable chance of winning our case, and there's also rumours that plenty of other clubs have done the same thing we have when it comes to tax avoidance and that HMRC just wants a judgement so they can pursue others who have done the same thing.
Basically, the scenarios seem to be as follows:
- HMRC wins their case against Rangers, and pursues the full amount. Rangers go into administration as a result.
- HMRC wins their case, but settle with Rangers for an amount that is affordable for Rangers. Rangers do not go into administration.
- The tribunal finds partially in favour of both sides, and there is a settlement that Rangers can afford
- The tribunal finds Rangers have no case to answer.
Of course, nobody knows how the tribunal will go, which is affecting the club financially because while there's still the uncertainty sorrounding whether or not the club will go into administration, it's understandably not enocouraging people to make commercial deals with the club.
