First of all, thanks to Tax Should Not Be Taxing for sending me this information.
The Rangers Football Club tax story has raised some interesting questions. It seems that a professional footballer is defined for tax as being on a fixed term contract - self employed with fixed contract terms.
The following link made for a good read:
http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/14930737
What is interesting is that HMRC are going after the company who paid out into the EBT, not the beneficiaries. Whilst company directors may have been involved as well as potential members of the PFA, no employee is being targetted for a liability.
The following link is a settlement offer by HMRC:
HM Revenue & Customs: Employee Benefit trusts, settlement opportunity
It seems to me that in this case, the tax liability of an EBT falls not with the beneficiary but with the EBT provider. Whilst I don't know all the facts of the Rangers case, the above links imply that the responsibility for taxation is not with a given individual but with the organisation behind the EBT.
In addition, I recently received my SA302 (the tax calculation) from HMRC which appears to show my income as it was declared on the SAR, excluding "white space" comment. This is very much in contrast to SA302s for prior periods which have been amended by HMRC to treat my Trust income as offshore partnership income (S58 FA2008).
Whilst many of our recent returns are being investigated there seems to grounds for cautious optimism over who HMRC will chase.
The Rangers Football Club tax story has raised some interesting questions. It seems that a professional footballer is defined for tax as being on a fixed term contract - self employed with fixed contract terms.
The following link made for a good read:
http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/14930737
What is interesting is that HMRC are going after the company who paid out into the EBT, not the beneficiaries. Whilst company directors may have been involved as well as potential members of the PFA, no employee is being targetted for a liability.
The following link is a settlement offer by HMRC:
HM Revenue & Customs: Employee Benefit trusts, settlement opportunity
It seems to me that in this case, the tax liability of an EBT falls not with the beneficiary but with the EBT provider. Whilst I don't know all the facts of the Rangers case, the above links imply that the responsibility for taxation is not with a given individual but with the organisation behind the EBT.
In addition, I recently received my SA302 (the tax calculation) from HMRC which appears to show my income as it was declared on the SAR, excluding "white space" comment. This is very much in contrast to SA302s for prior periods which have been amended by HMRC to treat my Trust income as offshore partnership income (S58 FA2008).
Whilst many of our recent returns are being investigated there seems to grounds for cautious optimism over who HMRC will chase.
interestign times ahead 
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