Disinformation and Deceit
23/10/2011 333 Comments
Coming hot on the heels of the public acceptance of truth that this blog has been bringing you, the disinformation campaign has stepped up a gear.
A rumour has recently started to take hold that HMRC’s case against Rangers is in trouble because of a 6-year rule for bringing assessments against taxpayers. This rumour, which we will see is entirely false, has been taken to heart for the comfort it provides by the less sentient creatures who inhabit the world of Rangers messageboards. Let me clear this up now: it is rubbish.
The real rules are as follows:
HMRC “normally” have 24 months from the end of an accounting period to start an enquiry.
Where a company has provided “inadequate disclosure”, the statute of limitations was recently reduced to four years, but remains six years where a company has “acted carelessly”. Sounds promising for Rangers fans? Well, do not get too excited. In cases involving “deliberate misstatement”, HMRC has a full 20 years to open an enquiry (let alone conclude it).
Those who have been following this blog will be in little doubt as to in which category Rangers will find themselves. “Deliberate misstatement” is so much at the core of this case, it could be the title of a film about it. Not only did Rangers FC repeatedly misstate the facts (to fans, ordinary shareholders, and HMRC alike), they got caught in a very provable way. (The patient will be rewarded with a full explanation in time).
Back to the 6-year myth: where did this particular piece of disinformation originate?
This yarn first found life on a blog: ScotsLawThoughts.wordpress.com. What follows is a comical (well it amused me!) tale of the extent some will go to try to prevent the truth from taking hold.
A poster on that blog by the name Louie posted:
Sorry Paul have been busy with papers, to clarify Malcolm is not sitting on the Tribunal. He was asked to scan the developments in Edinburgh and give opinion on the arguments presented, he was not overly impressed by the naked naivety of some of the HMRC positions. He picked up on the six year rule immediately a very grey area that no self respecting Silk should or would stray into, Whytes people are using it in their presentation and defences.
All in all I am told he thinks Andrew has driven a coach and horses through HMRC submissions, he is annoyed because he wanted a clear run at the matters involving English clubs, he will be HMRC lead in any proceedings, however he feels Edinburgh matters could put this event some way off.
Interesting? It might keep the candle of hope burning if you did not know the facts. Firstly, the posting tries to invoke the reputation of Malcolm Gammie QC. That particular Malcolm is a very highly regarded English tax lawyer. He has no role whatsoever in the current case against Rangers.
The bit that tickled me most is that I asked Paul McConville, publisher of the blog in question, to forward me the IP address assigned to Louie for his posts. I compared it to the IP addresses used on RangersTaxCase.com. “Louie” has posted on this site no less than 120 times. Regular readers might be surprised to learn this as they will not recognise the name. Breathe easy, for Louie is better known on this site by his other names:
- rasputin
- cannon
- stewy
- malky
- rhuari
- theaccountant
- jinkyal
- sam
- … and in his latest incarnation: ashton
| rasputin |
Submitted on 2011/03/29 at 6:30 am
I can tell you that you will need a bigger shovel to fill in the hole you are digging. The “Tax Inquiry” involving Rangers FC, will be formally abandoned at the Edinburgh First Tier status, on 18th April 2011, do have a nice day. |
| rasputin |
Submitted on 2011/03/29 at 11:49 am | In reply to rangerstaxcase.
It is not a continuation, there never was a hearing last October, hence First Tier status. Believe me I should know and I do know, c’est la vie. |
| rasputin |
Submitted on 2011/03/29 at 1:59 pm | In reply to rangerstaxcase.
Any secret dossiers on the go, you know the sort, refs, tax cases, care in the community, lack of care in the community that sort of thing,cos your taxation fairytale is just that..must dash ..golf is a calling,,,tout de suite… |
| cannon |
Submitted on 2011/03/31 at 8:37 am
Now that scotzine has saw sense and capitulated to whyte’s lawyers, who’s next. |
| theaccountant |
Submitted on 2011/08/16 at 8:57 am
Story is , Thornhill of Pump Court Tax Chambers, is suggesting that those favoured by the scheme, were not direct employees of Rangers, that they were in fact subcontracted due to the nature and structure of disputed scheme. There could be a problem there with SFA registrations, however Thornhill is said to be claiming that the players/subcontractors gifted control of said registrations to Rangers FC, which would also affect tax status. Appears he has blind sided HMRC with this justification of the scheme, insisting no defence is necessary, for a perfectly legal use of taxation law and legislation. The general consensus is that Thornhill is leading by a country mile, HMRC being a poor second at this stage. |
| sam |
Submitted on 2011/09/05 at 9:37 am
Word going round at Centre 1, that the big case is being abandoned. |
| sam |
Submitted on 2011/09/05 at 9:58 am
I wasn’t suggesting anything BK, I may be a lowly maintenance worker, but I overheard several high heid yins, while I was doing some maintence on the exec floor. The rank and file seem to be talking about it that way now also, seem to think it would have also been not went this length of time, if it was nailed on. Strange that the owner dismisses ant view, his own apart as comedic. |
| sam |
Submitted on 2011/09/05 at 10:29 am
I still don’t get it, if rangers and their bosses have committed a criminal offence, evasion, they would face criminal charges, if they have committed no offence, avoidance, why is taxpayers money being wasted, it is one or the other, criminal or not. |
| ashton |
Submitted on 2011/10/11 at 9:39 pm
Paranoia is alive and well and being practised by a few here.. RTC has been consistent in his doubts as to any outcome. |
About rangerstaxcase
Rangers Tax Case 
I noted a few people interested in not only Celtic supporters views regarding Rangers 2012 being re-integrated into SPL if/when the existing Rangers FC incurs a liquidation event that sees the death of Rangers FC 1973 to 2011.
Since i have paid a wee fee to zoomerang for 1 month’s use I have created a survey rather than a poll to gather the views of not only Celtic supporters but supporters of all Scottish league clubs.
So please take survey and I will share results when closed (closing date 14/11/2011). Please feel free to share this link with all and any football related blogs, websites etc.
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22DJKZJRULU
I’m sure the savvy ones here can answer this
What’s to stop Whyte just liquidating the whole lot and disappearing with the cash. I realise that he would be public enemy no1 and would need bodyguards for ever, but £18m would buy a lot of kevlar
I don’t entirely buy this scenario myself but the other scenarios involving a newco would mean someone fronting up enough money to pay for at least half a season with little income & I don’t see whyte doing that
v says:
24/10/2011 at 11:22 pm
I’m sure the savvy ones here can answer this
What’s to stop Whyte just liquidating the whole lot and disappearing with the cash. I realise that he would be public enemy no1 and would need bodyguards for ever, but £18m would buy a lot of kevlar
I don’t entirely buy this scenario myself but the other scenarios involving a newco would mean someone fronting up enough money to pay for at least half a season with little income & I don’t see whyte doing that
—————————————————-
How would that work, who would be buying what and for how much.
Whyte may be the preferred creditor however if Rangers are going to fulfil their fixtures whilst in Administration or receivership the players and management team will have to be paid.
They have very significant leverage here. They could refuse to appear if they are not being paid. I suspect that they would not be in breach of contract if that was the case.
The receiver would then have a very difficult decision to make. Does he honour his obligation to the preferred creditor and risk the club being thrown out of the league for failing to fulfil fixtures. Alternatively the club could fulfil with youth team players
Either way the players probably hold much more sway here than in previous situations.
Don’t pay= Don’t Play
If they have to be paid then does it matter whether Whyte pays the salaries this month or not.
To me the HMRC frozen £2.3 million will determine whether Whyte goes for an insolvency event early. If he had a plan from day 1 to benefit financially from Insolvency, then the quantum of his perceived profit will determine whether £2.3 million was a big chunk of the turn, or merely a minor amount.
If it was a big chunk of what he perceived he will get, then he won’t hang around to watch it disappear. He will act sooner rather than later
Hugh McEwan – Thanks for the reply @ 10:16
v says:
24/10/2011 at 11:22 pm
I’m sure the savvy ones here can answer this
What’s to stop Whyte just liquidating the whole lot and disappearing with the cash.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If it where possible..then as a die hard rangers friend of mine said last week…
“If he decides to take the cash and run…I can assure you…the moon ain’t far enough”
And he meant it..
Paulie W,
I concur, paisan, or rather “sono d’accordo con lei”.
However, I hope the part of you to which you refer is not a small part which has just died !
Dug73,
MBBCW already has access to expensive legal advice, Carter Ruck?,etc., the cost of which inflates the debt owed to Group.
v says @ 11:22 pm
>> I’m sure the savvy ones here can answer this. What’s to stop
>> Whyte just liquidating the whole lot and disappearing with the cash.
I wondered about how much money he could make from this. In his interview he said something along the lines of more deals being successful than not, but then ‘successful’ for whom?
If he disappeared to Argentina or Belize he may get away with it. Closer to home while Castle Grant is a castle in name, it doesn’t have a moat and battlements which he may need to keep an angry mob at bay in the middle of the night.
the Don Dionisio says:
24/10/2011 at 11:44 pm
Dug73,
MBBCW already has access to expensive legal advice, Carter Ruck?,etc., the cost of which inflates the debt owed to Group.
_______________________________________________________________
Maybe true Don but I doubt Carter Ruck or any other reputable agency would supply advocacy without up front fees, especially after the Levy McCrae nonsense..Cash flow supposedly being what it is I dont think the licence payer has any worries and I await the month end with some anticipation.
Hugh, I’ve not much of an idea but, off the top of my head..
sell some players in the January window, go into liquidation while the club is cash rich, take Murray park and Ibrox as part of the floating charge, sell Murray park (someone mentioned Cala homes and the need for a sports centre) Lease Ibrox back to whoever picks up the wreckage
This is almost certainly total nonsense, but every other scenario would seem to need whyte putting money back into a rangers newco & he hasn’t seemed too keen on that
As I said, it’s nonsense but I suspect whatever the outcome, it will be the one that makes him the most money
Paulmac,,I saw news night that night to,,and you are right pacman did tell the guy to stop calling him mr idiot.
gunnerb says:
24/10/2011 at 11:57 pm
———————————————-
Carter-Ruck do a lot of their libel work on a “no win, no fee” basis, even for wealthy or famous clients, as they can, if they win, get a whacking great uplift in fees from the other side.
In any event, it is, as I understand it, Mr Whyte who is pursuing the action personally, and he is a man of financial substance so could undoubtedly afford what his lawyer wanted for outlays or insurance premiums.
Was in the pub earlier and overheard a conversation that went a bit like this (with apologies to Messrs Cook and Moore):
CLIVE: …..Load of c*nts, the BBC. They all drink Guinness.
DEREK: ….Yeah, f*ck, what’d they f*cking know about Craig Whyte?
CLIVE: They all drink Guinness.
DEREK:…. What’s BBC1 know about Craig f*cking Whyte?
CLIVE: …..Nothing.
DEREK: …..F*ck all!
CLIVE:….. and I wrote a letter to them, I said, “Dear-,” I
wrote to whatever the f*cking name is, the head of the f*cking BBC, who’s their …..
DEREK:… “Dear C*nt”.
CLIVE:….Yeah, that’s right, I said, …..
DEREK:….That’s it, yeah, “Dear C*nt”.
CLIVE:…I put ‘C*nt, London’ on. I knew that would find him.
DEREK:…Yeah, ‘C*nt, London’ …..
CLIVE:…. you don’t have to put ‘TV Centre’ …..
DEREK:…C*nt, …..
CLIVE:….. ‘C*nt, London’, ……..and it reaches the Director-General of the BBC.
I’m gonna say 10am Thursday rangers will go into administration,,don’t think they can pay the players on Friday.
Why carter ruck? Why the BBC? This blog has made the same or similar assertions, I wonder if carter ruck has gone ‘no win, no fee’?
‘friday I’m in love’ The Cure
Friday on my mind,,Gary Moore
Then after the news sinks in,,Elton John,,Saturday is alright for a fight,,,and beat the wife
andy Fitzpatrick says: 25/10/2011 at 12:03 am
I’m gonna say 10am Thursday rangers will go into administration,,don’t think they can pay the players on Friday.
=========================================
They will have to have taken some steps before then. I would guess that the players are paid via BACS. If so, the wages file will have to be sent to BACS during the day on Wednesday at the very latest to be in the players accounts on Friday morning.
can anyone make use of this tool for our purposes? –
http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/users/London+Hearts
Easy Jambo
They can send the BACS file but the info is only processed on the night scheduled to run. BACS will return unpaid transactions on scheduled process date/time. BACS system doesn’t know if cash in accounts to cover payments until then.
Lord Wobbly,
Did you send a letter later?
Paul,
Re Carter Ruck, the no win no fee thing is because in England, unlike here, both success fees and ATE insurance premia are recoverable from opponents at taxation, and so there are top rates to be earned. But you have to have a basic degree of confidence in your client’s case to do that, since if you lose you do hundreds of thoursands of pounds worth of work and get hee haw.If Carter Ruck do any due diligence they’ll realise that there will be a lot to come out at any trial. I predict at most a letter demanding a retraction and damges, and no proceedings. If CW wanted it in court immediately the summons would already be served. They’ve had bags of time.
Moderation. Hvndred again. Doh!
Paulie
just copy and paste it in the comment box, and change your spelling before you submit.
“I think the land-bank company connection is wrong. It appears that the group behind Willow are Pershing Nominees, who in turn are owned by Williams de Broe, part of the Evolution Group PLC. Williams de Broe deal in Private client portfolio management and have an Edinburgh office.”
Williams De Broe were the stockbrokers for Fergus McCann’s divestment of shares in Celtic.
Apols is this has already been posted. I’m struggling to catch up;-)
The Rangers support seem to latch onto the idea that “we’ll win the case, but if for some reason we don’t, Whyte will put us into administration and HMRC won’t get a penny”. They see it as the last in a bag of tricks, and in their best interests. I think most’s heads would explode if Whyte put them into administration before that (especially soon), since it obviously wouldn’t be as a direct result of the big tax case.
Paul McConville says:
25/10/2011 at 12:01 am
“Mr Whyte who is pursuing the action personally, and he is a man of financial substance so could undoubtedly afford what his lawyer wanted for outlays or insurance premiums.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Yes of course Paul, how silly of me.
Lord Wobbly,
Did you send a letter later?
Paul,
Re Carter Ruck, the no win no fee thing is because in England, unlike here, both success fees and ATE insurance premia are recoverable from opponents at taxation, and so there are top rates to be earned. But you have to have a basic degree of confidence in your client’s case to do that, since if you lose you do hvndreds of thoursands of pounds worth of work and get hee haw.If Carter Ruck do any due diligence they’ll realise that there will be a lot to come out at any trial. I predict at most a letter demanding a retraction and damges, and no proceedings. If CW wanted it in court immediately the summons would already be served. They’ve had bags of time.
Apart from the RFC problems, the other major story which should not be forgotten is the complicit cover up in the Scottish mainstream media.
Why did it take bloggers to investigate/communicate arguably the biggest Scottish football story for decades ?
Why should football supporters believe anything they read/view/hear in the MSM in future?
For the Scottish MSM to try and start to redeem themselves they should all go and hound SDM.
They should also share all the RFC stories covered up over the years.
They should also issue grovelling apologies.
Then, just maybe, their customers might believe what they produce in future?
Or perhaps pigs might fly.
However, one significant outcome of the RFC financial implosion maybe that football supporters discount MSM output in future, and bloggers become the preferred source of truth.
I know in future I will be regularly checking the internet for real/unreported stories.
RTC amongst others has provided a valuable service – by confirming there is a credible alternative to MSM for Scottish football stories – and there should be increasing demand for their output in future.
the Don Dionisio says:
24/10/2011 at 11:44 pm
Dug73,
MBBCW already has access to expensive legal advice, Carter Ruck?,etc., the cost of which inflates the debt owed to Group.
++++++++++++++++
….but mibbes no money. It is also not unknown for lawyers to be in error.
Just saying, like.
Weeminger:
Further to your comments about Willow International I found a company called Willow International (1990) Ltd Frozen Food,Turfholm IndustEst, ML11 0ED Lanark, Strathclyde. I don’t think there’s a connection but the address you gave could have been a newer address. I also noticed on the map that just round the corner is Willow House. Azure Catering had an office there…..another former Murray venture.
Paulie Walnuts says:
25/10/2011 at 12:45 am
Lord Wobbly,
Did you send a letter later?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not yet, but I’m considering demanding to know why so much time and license fee money is wasted on trivial programming (do three Top Gear presenters plus crew really need to be flown all over the world just to test/race/destroy the sort of car that 99% of TV license payers will never own….and don’t get me started on ‘celebrity’ shows or overpaid presenters), when they (time and monies, not TG presenters) could be used to produce more worthy investigative programmes like Mark Daly’s.
In establishing a drop dead date for the party to end a rough look at the cash flow will give some idea. The take over date was May 6, 2011. The deal does not allow CW & Co. to borrow money on the club so all expenditure has to come from cash-in-hand (no line of credit ). Based on this the rough picture is;
INCOME
Cash on hand @ 6/5/2011 ( estimate ) 5,000,000
Season Tickets 20,000,000
2 Euro Gates 2,000,000
Liverpool 500,000
Other 1,000,000
Total 28,500,000
OUTGOING
24 week @ 1,000,000 ( operating ) 24,000,000
Liberty Capital Fee @ 450,000/month 2,700,000
Ring-Fenced Money 3,000,000
Other (legal, etc. ) 500,000
Total 30,200,000
Assumes player fees in and out as even.
Its getting to be tight collar time.
Hopefully some of the more financially expert bloggers can refine this. October 28th anyone?
Whyte reminds me of a 10 year old who has got hold of a new chemistry set for his christmas.
He is presently messing about with the chemicals without reading the instructions . We haven’t
reached the stage yet where he adds his own ‘ ingredients ‘ – aka – whats under the sink / in the
hall cupboard – to ‘see’ what happens – thats the next step – coming soon 🙂