What tax experts are saying about Rangers.

“Scuttlebutt” is a wonderfully graphic nautical term that has migrated from the days of sailing ships into the world of work to mean office gossip.

Where once it meant the device where sailors congregated to have a drink, it now means workplace bush telegraph. A term originally meaning cask on shipboard to contain freshwater for a day’s use now means an underground communications network where people find out what is really going on. Probably because this was the one time in the day that the ship’s crew could congregate and chat about what was happening in their part of the ship. All professional groups have scuttlebutt.

In the world of tax consultants the Rangers case is now, as they said in the Glasgow of my childhood, “the talk of the steamie”.

It is now received wisdom among people that earn their living by advising others on how to be tax efficient in the UK, that Rangers FC is a dead company walking.

It is no secret among these tax professionals that HMRC have, in their possession, documentary evidence that spells “game, set and administration!”

My most recent source on this case, a highly regarded tax consultant, related the following to me:

“Only last week I was at a presentation given by a Chartered Accountant who specialises on Tax Mitigation Strategies. His advice to anyone with shares in Rangers was that it might be a good idea to sell them quickly!”

There is more, much more to reveal about this case. However, I do not want to prejudice the Tribunal. When the time is correct the entire case can be revealed here.