Quote Slugger McBatt="Slugger McBatt"I think the ground was sold some considerable time ago and so that has little to do with the current situation. As I understand it, it has more to do with movement to a new ground than debts. Insofar as the taxman is concerned, a schedule of payments was agreed, and people in the know seem to state that the schedule has been stuck to and so the debt will be virtually repaid. I don't entirely know what the issue was in relation to the taxes, but there have been recent changes involving image rights that perhaps caught us on the hop.
I reckon most Wakey fans would imagine that running the club is like spinning plates with not much financial slack, and we know we don't have the financial clout of some clubs, but to suggest that we rely on a pre-season warm-up game to save us is just ridiculous. If there was any truth in it, we would have looked at fielding a young and cheap squad (and it has to be remembered that Wakey won the Academy Grand Final) rather than recruiting a number of high-earners. Newton, BJ and Morrisson won't be playing for pin money, and even if we released him for nothing, the loss of Brough's salary alone would provide more cash than the gate for a friendly.
The facts don't stack up, I'm afraid.'"
Must admit, I find the suggestion that the future of the club depends on one pre-season game somewhat hard to believe too.
Re the tax...SOME payment schedule cannot have been adhered to (or some other bill disputed) for HMRC to take the action they did. If you agree a payment schedule with HMRC, and stick to it, that is contractually binding and they cannot and will not seek a winding-up order. But you are not the first to raise the Image Rights issue in this context. Without going over what is my pet issue all over again, if Wakey copped a big assessment for tax and NIC that HMRC contended should have been deducted from/paid in respect of image rights payments, something they are tackling various other clubs with and IMO rightly so, then that could easily have led to a bill the club simply could not pay. As I have said on previous threads, I hope this action is concluded by HMRC going away and Wakey still being in existence.
One of your lot suggested that, alternatively, the tax bill could have arisen from Capital Gain on sale of the ground. IMO that is eminently plausible too.
