RANGERS will avoid any further football sanctions despite the UK’s highest court ruling against the club over its use of a controversial Employee Benefit Trust scheme (EBT) for tax purposes.

The Scottish Football Association has said that there is little scope for further disciplinary action against the club in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the taxman following a long-running dispute over a tax avoidance dubbed the ‘Big Tax Case’.

About £50 million was paid to dozens of Rangers players and staff through an EBT scheme administered by the Murray Group, then majority shareholder of the Glasgow club, from 2001 to 2009. 

The club said these should be classified as loans, but HMRC insisted they were taxable earnings.

The result will mean that creditors still awaiting cash after the club’s liquidation will receive less money, as HMRC will now be owed a bigger share.

The court’s decision is not expected to have any material or financial impact on Rangers now as the club is owned by a different company.

A spokesman for the SFA said that the board had noted the judgement, and had sought legal advice on any next steps. 

He added: “Senior Counsel was asked to anticipate whether a determination in favour of HMRC, as announced today, could imply that there had been a breach of the Scottish FA’s Disciplinary Rules as they applied at the time of the EBT payments.

“The clear opinion of Senior Counsel is that there is a very limited chance of the Scottish FA succeeding in relation to any complaint regarding this matter and that, even if successful, any sanctions available to a Judicial Panel would also be limited in their scope.

“Accordingly, having had time to consider the opinion from Senior Counsel, and having examined the judgment of the UK Supreme Court, the Board has determined that no further disciplinary action should be taken by the Scottish FA at this time.”

Lord Hodge announced in court that five Supreme Court judges had unanimously dismissed an appeal by the liquidators of RFC2012, the company formerly known as Rangers Football Club before its financial collapse in 2012.

HMRC had lost two earlier tribunal hearings over the Employee Benefit Trust scheme before a ruling in their favour in the Court of Session in Edinburgh in November 2015, but has now won the final round of the legal fight. 

Rangers, then run by Craig Whyte, went into administration in February 2012 over a separate tax debt and the tax authority rejected a creditors agreement in June of that year. The result is a major victory for HMRC in its attempts to recoup tax from thousands of other companies which ran EBTs and similar schemes, which were the subject of a crackdown in legislation enacted in December 2010.

Former Rangers chairman Sir David Murray expressed his disappointment with the verdict.

Sir David said: “The decision runs counter to the legal advice which was consistently provided to Rangers Football Club, that on the basis of the law and legal precedent at the time, the contributions made to the trust were not earnings and should not be taxed as such. It should be emphasised that there have been no allegations made by HMRC or any of the courts that the club was involved in tax evasion, which is a criminal offence.  The decision will be greeted with dismay by the ordinary creditors of the club, many of which are small businesses, who will now receive a much lower distribution in the liquidation of the club, which occurred during the ownership of Craig Whyte, than may otherwise have been the case.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Premier League (SPL) said: “The Board of the SPFL notes today’s judgement of the Supreme Court. We will now take time to examine the ‎judgement in detail and to consider any implications for the SPFL.”

David Richardson, director general of HMRC’s customer compliance group, said: “This decision has wide-ranging implications for other avoidance cases and we encourage anyone who’s tried to avoid tax on their earnings to now agree with us the tax owed.”

Analysis - EBT saga finally ends but debate over Rangers’ gains will rumble on 

THE long-running saga of rangers Big Tax case has finally drawn to a close after being batted from court to court like one of Andy Murray’s tennis balls. 

HMRC opened opened its investigation into Rangers in 2010 after about £50 million worth of payments were made to dozens of employees through employee benefit trusts (EBTs) from 2001, and the case rumbled on even after the club was consigned to liquidation over an unrelated tax debt in 2012.

Despite suffering two tax tribunal defeats to the Murray Group, the former majority shareholder of Rangers which administered the EBT scheme, HMRC lumbered on regardless and has finally secured binding triumph which it says will have major consequences.

Lord Hodge and his fellow judges agreed with HMRC’s assertion the payments were taxable earnings and not loans, as contended by the club. 

Many of the payments had been set out in advance in “side letters” which were separate from contracts and kept secret from the tax and football authorities.

Dozens of players and staff were said to have benefitted from the scheme, leading to calls that Rangers should be stripped of titles won during the years the scheme was in play, with critics saying it allowed the club to sign high-profile players it could not normally afford. 

The list of players whose bank balances were buoyed by the use of EBTs is long, and counts Dutch international Arthur Numan, whose EBT payments amounted to £510,000, Scotland striker Billy Dodds, who received £190,000 and Australian Craig Moore, who was paid £1.1million, among its number.

The scheme was most widely used during the tenure of manager Dick Advocaat, who himself received £1.5million, and his signing Norwegian Tore Andre Flo - the most expensive in the history of Scottish football at £13 million - is said to have benefitted to the tune of £1.3million.

Both Arthur Numan and fellow defender Michael Ball, who was paid through the scheme during his stint at Ibrox, have previously called for the issue to be laid to rest, and an SPL review of the schemes after a Rangers tax tribunal victory fpund that the club had not been given a sporting advantage. 

EBTs were the subject of a legislative crackdown in 2010 but HMRC continued to pursue thousands of companies which used the schemes beforehand, with a July 2015 deadline set for firms to settle debts. Those which did not have now been urged to come forward following the result of what was seen as a major test case.

Many more tax avoidance schemes will be likely targeted after HMRC’s victory, with Andy Wood, technical director of Enterprise Tax Consultants, predicting the ruling would have “dramatic” consequences for other companies.

He said: “It gives HMRC the authority to pursue them for income tax without the need to embark on a further series of legal actions.

“The process of issuing follower notices to recoup payment of what is expected to be tens of millions of pounds in income tax could begin almost immediately.”